


When Missing the Bus is Considered Lucky

by Three Guesses (Thr3eGuess3s)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, I don't really understand tags, Lena is a Gay Mess, Why am I doing this again?, Winn is best best friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2018-09-18 10:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 41,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9379892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thr3eGuess3s/pseuds/Three%20Guesses
Summary: Missing the bus is an unfortunate thing to happen to anyone, even more so when it is missed through no fault of your own. However, this is exactly the sort of situation that Lena Luthor is finding herself in with increasing frequency.But, hey, sometimes missing the bus can be a good thing! Especially when it gets you a lift with a certain beautiful blonde...





	1. Chapter 1

If there was one thing that Lena Luthor never was, that thing was late; she was born on her due date, had been raised so that she was always at events either on time or slightly early and she'd never been late to school once in her entire life.

 

Something that was consistently late, however, was the college bus.  It was  _ supposed  _ to collect at 7:30 but, ever since the first day, it hadn't turned up until at least 7:50, leaving Lena and the two other people who got on at her stop to shiver in the cold for upwards of 20 minutes in the morning.

 

As such, Lena had taken to arriving at the bus stop a little later than the bus was scheduled to turn up. She didn't see why she shouldn't; the damn thing hadn't been on time  _ once  _ in the month and a half that she'd been in college and, now that it was October, Lena felt justified in staying in the warm for a little longer. 

 

And this worked! Lena would leave the house at a more reasonable time, spend less of her life suffering as her fingers slowly froze solid in her gloves and then get on the bus and arrive at college as normal. It was wonderful. She even got to sleep in for an extra five minutes which, whilst only five minutes, was still a welcome change. 

 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and so it was that Lena Luthor, one sub-zero morning, exited the family driveway, looked around and saw… the bus. On time. For once.

 

Now, most people would rejoice at the sight of a bus being on time, but not Lena. Not this morning. No, instead, the youngest Luthor had to tighten her grip on her bag, hold her phone in her hand save it falling out of her pocket and sprint after the bus, wondering why on earth she  _ ever _ thought it would be a good idea to wear boots with three-inch heels and desperately praying to anything and everything that the driver would notice her and stop.

 

He didn’t.

 

Lena chased the bus all the way down the road, not knowing how she was managing to keep going but not really caring. She even, somehow, managed to pick up the pace when she saw the vehicle halt at the bus stop to pick everyone up and she tried to shout out, tell the driver to wait, but she had no breath left to do it with. 

 

And it was all for naught; she was too late. The bus pulled away from the stop and sped away down the slowly lightening road.

 

Lena slowed her run to a walk and trudged the rest of the way to the bus stop, gasping for air to stop the burning in her lungs and the aching in her legs. Lactic acid was a bitch. 

 

She would have sat down, rested for a moment, but she couldn’t; she swore that this stop was the only one on the route that didn’t have some form of seating near it. And so Lena found herself with the options of either sitting on the floor, ruining her skirt, or hoping that her legs could support her for the half an hour before the service bus decided to show up. 

 

Being both a woman of pride and unwilling to sacrifice her clothes, Lena chose the latter option. She flung her bag to the ground and tried to get her breath back in as elegant a manner as she could. Unfortunately, there really is no sophisticated way to take in the amount of oxygen that Lena needed in that moment and so she was stuck with just breathing loudly and heavily.

 

It was then that a car pulled up to the bus stop. 

 

Lena heard the handbrake go on and then the passenger side window rolled down. After only a moment of confusion, she bent down a little to see who it was that was in the vehicle.

 

“Hey, honey,” a woman who looked to be in her early forties with blonde hair that was tied back into a neat looking bun was leaning over someone who Lena could only assume to be her daughter, “did you miss the bus?”

 

Lena could only nod, not yet recovered enough from her recent bout of unexpected exercise to form any words.

 

“Hop in then, there’s room in the back.” The woman’s eyes were kind and her smile was genuine.

 

“Oh,” Lena panted, “no it’s… phew… it’s fine. I’ll… I’ll get the service bus.” She nodded to herself. “Should… should be here any minute.”

 

“The next bus doesn’t come for another half hour,” the girl in the front pointed out, looking at Lena with a mixture of distrust and suspicion.

 

The young Luthor attempted a smile but had a feeling that it came out as more of a grimace of pain than anything even remotely close to what she had been aiming for.

 

“I don’t want to be a bother.”

 

“Oh, it’s fine,” the woman said, waving her off. “It’s no trouble.” She turned around to face whoever was in the back of the car already. “Kara, move  - oh, you’ve already done it.” She turned back to Lena. “Go on, get in dear.”

 

Lena bit her lip. She  _ really _ shouldn’t be getting into a car with strangers… But, then again, the girl in the front seat  _ did _ look familiar; Lena was  _ sure  _ that she’d seen her around college. 

 

So, after only a moment’s deliberation, she opened the back door of the car and got in.

 

She found herself sat next to a pretty girl that she was almost certain was in her year. Blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and framed her face beautifully. Blue eyes that sparkled with optimism and hope made contact with the Luther’s own, causing the dark haired girl’s face heat up, although it was probably impossible to tell at that moment. One thing was certain though; if Lena had had any breath left, this girl would have taken it away again. 

 

On the other side of the girl was someone that Lena actually recognised and slightly knew; Winn Schott. They’d been on the same school-collaboration course last year for computing and  were now in the same class for computer science but Lena hadn’t spoken to him much. Lena didn’t speak to  _ anyone _ very often. Still, actually knowing someone in the car helped to relax the young Luthor a little

 

Winn nodded in her direction and Lena nodded back. The woman drove off once Lena had fastened her seatbelt. By this point, she had almost caught all of her breath back.

 

Before she could fully recover, however, the gorgeous blonde sitting next to her started talking. 

 

“Hey.” She turned to Lena and beamed at her. “I'm Kara.”

 

The girl stuck her hand out at Lena as best she could with the close proximity and awkward angle.

 

“Lena.”

 

She took the offered had with only a small amount of difficulty and shook it. Kara’s hands were warm against Lena’s own freezing ones and the Luthor relished in the heat that the contact brought for a moment before politely dropping the other girl’s hand.

 

Kara kept smiling at her for a moment before seeing to give herself a little mental shake. “Oh, and this is Winn.” She gestured to said person.

 

He raised a hand in greeting. “Hi, Lena.”

 

“Winn,” Lena nodded.

 

“Wait!” Kara seemed confused, looking rapidly back and forth between them. “You two know each other?”

 

Lena opened her mouth to explain but Winn beat her to it.

 

“Yeah, we have a class together; computer science.”

 

“Oh!” A look of recognition flashed across the blonde’s eyes. “She’s the one you always complain about!”

 

Lena turned her head to look at Winn so quickly she almost gave herself whiplash. She eyed him, raising one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows in look that she knew could make a grown man run screaming.

 

“No!” Winn jumped to defend himself hastily. “I don’t - well, okay, I  _ do _ but- BUT it’s not - it’s, it’s because you’re always top of the class and I can never beat you!”

 

Lena’s eyebrow continued its upwards journey.

 

“Really! It’s super annoying because whatever I do you’re always on top so I… complain to the others because… well, I just… Oh, you know what I mean.” 

 

“Alright,” said Lena, settling back into her seat. “I believe you.” She waited until Winn’s face had started to light up before she continued. “For now…”

 

Winn looked like he was ready to fling himself out of the car window. Lena just smiled smugly to herself; she really enjoyed terrifying people on occasion.

 

“Welllll,” Kara said into the silence. “Um, so… uh… Oh! That’s my sister Alex!” 

 

She pointed to the girl in the front seat who turned slightly to see Lena and raised a hand.

 

“Yo.”

 

“And that’s our mum who’s driving!”

 

Lena shot one last smirk at Winn before introducing herself to the rest of the car.

 

*****

 

The rest of the journey passed in a blur of small talk and teasing and a bit of singing from Kara and her mother when Alex turned the radio on and set the CD to play. Lena didn’t know what band it was; she wasn’t much up to date with modern music, but she enjoyed the music nevertheless.

 

When they arrived at college, Lena was almost reluctant to leave the car but she did, knowing that she had some work to print out before her first class.

 

She thanked Kara’s mother, who insisted that it was no trouble at all, for the lift and exchanged a few farewells with the rest of the group before making her way to the college Resource Centre and the warmth that it provided.

 

The rest of Lena’s day was uneventful; she went class, took notes, ate lunch, did her homework in her free periods. The usual, really. 

 

The only thing that could be considered out of the ordinary is when Winn smiled at her as he came into the classroom for computer science. 

 

Lena was at a bit of a loss as to why he did it but she smiled back and couldn’t help but shoot a victorious smirk at him towards the end of the lesson as she was revealed to have the highest score on the recent homework. 

  
For some reason, she was even more pleased with herself than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I came up with the idea for this thing after missing the bus myself one morning. Unfortunately, unlike Lena, no one was there to pick me up so I had to get the service. I'm still recovering.
> 
> Anyway, this is the first multichaper fic that I'm actually uploading to anywhere and I definitely plan to finish it... at some point. Updates will be every 3 days and I have absolutely no clue how long this thing is going to be.
> 
> Comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and please, please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes I may have made. I think I've managed to catch them all but you never know.
> 
> Thanks for reading,
> 
> Three


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note; I know absolutely nothing about the American school system so I've taken the easy way out and set this in Britain so I actually know what I'm on about. As such, when I say college, I basically mean sixth form. For those who don't know what that is, it's like the last two years of Hogwarts.

The next day, Lena woke up five minutes earlier than she had been doing for the past few weeks. It pained her to give up her few, precious extra minutes in bed but it was worth it if it meant she got the bus. After all, it had been on time yesterday so what was to stop it from being on time today? Stranger things had happened.  
  
An hour later, Lena was out of the house and walking towards the bus stop, thinking to herself how ridiculous it was that she had to be on her way to college before the sun had even risen.  
  
And then the bus barreled past her.   
  
It was early.  
  
Lena swore under her breath and started to run after it again. She hoped that this would not become a regular occurrence. Thankfully though, running in flats was a lot easier than running in heels.  
  
It was a different driver today; she could see him in the side mirror as he sped off ahead of her, definitely going over the speed limit. She was surprised he hadn’t hit anything.  
  
When he stopped to pick people up, Lena ran faster, desperate to catch her bus, perhaps catch someone’s attention so they could delay the driver for her.  
  
Unfortunately, luck was not with Lena Luthor that day and, just as she came within a few metres of the vehicle, it drove off.  
  
Lena let out a noise of frustration as she reached the bus stop and then immediately had to stop catch her breath. She felt like she could pass out at any moment.  
  
After a few minutes of dreadful suffering, Lena was finally breathing normally again as she leant on the post that held the bus stop sign. She’d resigned herself to standing in the cold for half an hour and was just unravelling her headphones so she’d have something to listen to whilst she slowly froze to death when a car pulled up next to her again.  
  
The window rolled down and Lena was greeted by Alex.  
  
“Miss the bus again?” she said, eyebrow raised slightly and a glimmer of amusement dancing around her eyes.  
  
“No,” Lena said matter-of-factly, “I’m just standing here for my own amusement.”  
  
Alex snorted in laughter.  
  
“Get in,” she said.  
  
Lena got in, wearing a smile of her own as she did so.  
  
“Hi!” Kara greeted her enthusiastically as she shut the door and strapped herself in.  
  
“Hello to you, too, Kara,” she acknowledged, returning the grin that was sent her way. “Winn.”  
  
“I will beat you one day, you know,” he told her solemnly.  
  
Lena laughed.  
  
“In your dreams.”  
  
“So,” Alex spoke up from the front seat, turning so that she could see everyone in the back and fixing her eyes on the youngest Luthor, “how come you keep missing the bus?”  
  
Lena sighed and looked down at her lap, carefully straightening the skirt she was wearing.   
  
“I don’t _keep_ missing the bus; it’s simply just been early these last two days,” she explained, almost curtly.  
  
“They shouldn’t be allowed to do that!” Kara said, outraged. “Trains aren’t allowed to leave stations early so busses shouldn’t be able to either. You should complain to the company, Lena.”  
  
Lena waved her hand in dismissal. “No point; I tried that when they kept turning up late but nothing was done about it.”  
  
“Is that why there’s always always groups of cold, miserable people standing at the stops every morning?” Alex asked.  
  
“Unfortunately.”  
  
“That’s completely unfair!”  
  
“Kara, it’s fine,” Lena attempted to assure her. “Really, we’re all used to it.”  
  
“But you shouldn’t have to be.” Kara grabbed Lena’s hands. Her eyes were alight with some form of fiery passion and they stared into Lena’s soul. She was beautiful and the Luthor was speechless. “Lena, it’s not right that they keep everyone waiting every day. What if it rains? What if it’s really windy?” she shook her head and moved a little closer to the dark haired girl. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”  
  
Lena’s breath caught in her throat and a blush started to rise in her cheeks at Kara’s proximity.  
  
“I agree with Kara.”  
  
Kara’s mother’s voice broke the moment and both girls turned to look at the older woman who was watching them through the rear-view mirror.  
  
“You should ask your parents to take it up with the bus company as well, Lena. They might start to listen if more people start to bring up the issue.”  
  
“Thank you Mrs…uh,” Lena had a horrible moment when she realised that she didn’t know Kara’s mother’s name.  
  
“Danvers,” the woman supplied. “But you can call me Eliza.”  
  
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you my mum’s name,” Kara lamented, flopping back into Winn and throwing a hand over her eyes.  
  
“It’s fine,” Lena assured her. “Thank you for the advice, Mrs Danvers. I’ll be sure to do that.”  
  
She neglected to inform the woman that her parents both knew of the situation and didn’t care enough to do anything about it; it didn’t affect _them_ so why should they?  
  
*****  
  
Again, the rest of the journey was filled with Kara’s chattering only this time it was more rambling about injustice and how she wished she could knock some sense into these companies ‘but not, like, _hit_ the people in charge; just, y’know, make them see how awful they’re being sometimes’. Lena listened to every word. She silently wished that there were more people in the world like Kara.  
  
“- and that’s why I think I _kinda_ want to be a reporter like my cousin after university.” The blonde beamed at Lena.   
  
“Well, for what it’s worth,” Lena said as the car pulled up to the college, “I think you’ll be excellent at it.”  
  
Kara went almost completely red and her hand jumped up to play with the glasses that were falling down the bridge of her nose.  
  
“Oh, I, um… really?”  
  
She looked sheepishly at Lena, an almost hopeful expression on her face.  
  
“Definitely,” Lena reassured her. She opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle, making sure that there was enough room for Kara to get out as well. “I think you’ll do great.”  
  
Kara almost fell out of the car.  
  
“Thank you for the lift again, Mrs Danvers,” Lena called back into the car.  
  
“Y-yeah. Thanks mum.”  
  
“No problem,” Eliza assured them. “Have a nice day.”  
  
They told her that they would and then Lena pushed the door closed, being careful not to slam it, and Eliza drove off. The two girls stood watching the car for a moment, Lena silently smiling at the kindness she was being shown and Kara not trusting herself enough to speak without sounding like an idiot.  
  
“Kara!” Winn’s voice broke the silence. He and Alex had started to walk in the direction of the common room. “You coming?”  
  
“I’ll catch up,” the blonde called after him. She turned to Lena. “So… would you want to come up to the common room with us?” she asked, pointing over her shoulder in the direction of the others. “It’s okay if you don’t, I mean -”  
  
She continued to ramble for a bit whilst Lena processed what was happening; she’d never really been asked if she wanted to hang out with someone before, especially not someone as sweet as Kara, and it was a lot to take in. Eventually, she decided to cut the blonde off because the girl was now rambling something about chairs.  
  
“Kara.”  
  
“-and I _know_ they’re not -”  
  
“Kara!”  
  
Kara’s mouth snapped shut and she blushed red again. Eyes wide and glasses slipping down, she looked remarkably like something that’d been caught in the headlights of a car on the motorway. It was adorable and Lena was _slain_.  
  
“Sorry,” she squeaked.  
  
“It’s fine, Kara.” She waved a hand dismissively, hoping to repress the blush that was rising in her _own_ cheeks. “I don’t mind and I’d _love_ to come up to the common room-” _she_ _would?,_ “-but I _can’t_.”  
  
“Oh.” Kara’s happy demeanor that had popped up when Lena had said she’d ‘love to’ faded slightly.  
  
“I’ve got work and-”  
  
“No, no, it’s fine. I understand.” She grabbed Lena’s hands from where they rested, clasped in front of her. “But,” she said, looking into Lena’s soul again, “the offer’s always there if you want.”  
  
Lena was rendered speechless once again as Kara dropped her hands and retreated off to the common room.  
  
It was a few seconds after the girl was out of sight that Lena finally pulled herself together and made her way into the RC.  
  
She shoved her things under a computer table and logged into the machine, putting her phone on silent and inserting her headphones into her ears as she waited for everything to load.  
  
Pulling up the powerpoint that they’d be covering first lesson, Lena settled in to do some note-making. After all, it didn’t exactly hurt to be prepared.  
  
Ten full minutes of reading the same two slides over and over, not taking in a single thing because she was thinking of Kara and her smile and her offer to hang out with her friend group later, the youngest Luthor pretty much slammed her face into her notebook.   
  
Really though, what was she thinking? It was probably something the blonde would do for anyone. Lena wasn’t special; Kara was so nice that she probably invited random strangers to hang out with her all the time  
  
So why could she not get the girl out of her head? Why couldn’t she stop thinking about how cute she looked when she played with her glasses? How fiercely beautiful she was when talking about justice? How- Nope. She was _not_ going to do this.  
  
Lena pushed her palms into her eyes in an attempt to clear her head.   
  
It didn’t work, but at least she tried.  
  
And so, that morning, despite reading over the lesson notes _at least_ five times, Lena Luthor, star pupil of the college, got absolutely no work done.  
  
Today was going to be a long day.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you all enjoyed that. Guess who really hates busses. Hint; it's me.
> 
> Anyway, once again, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and feel free to point out any mistakes. Next update in three days.
> 
> See you then,
> 
> Three.


	3. Chapter 3

Waking up the next morning, Lena  _ vowed  _ that she would get the bus on time and so she rushed through her morning routine and was out of the house and at the bus stop way too early for her liking. Honestly, what kind of time was 7:15 to be stood in the cold in the mild darkness?

 

Fortunately for the young Luthor, her suffering paid off and the bus rolled up to the stop on time. 

 

Lena could have cried.

 

She got on last and sat down in her usual spot by the window, plugging her headphones into her ears as she did so to block out the loudness of the two boys who always got on at a stop before her’s and were, quite honestly, far too awake for this early in the morning. A few seconds later, the sounds of her beautiful rock ‘n’ roll filled Lena’s ears and she would have sat back and sighed but the bus was disgusting so she didn’t, instead settling with staring absentmindedly out of the window. Well, staring out of it as much as she could through the grime and condensation.

 

After another four stops, Lena wondered why she was ever upset that she’d missed the bus; someone was smoking one of those vile-smelling candy-flavoured e-cigarettes directly behind her and was blowing the disgusting water vapour into her hair with every exhale, despite the fact that it wasn’t permitted, some sort of pink liquid had been spilled by a careless passenger all over the floor and it was running about everywhere so that Lena was forced to rest her feet on the conveniently placed crossbar in front of her (it was actually the reason she chose to sit there) and, as if to top it all off, someone had decided to sit next to her and they absolutely  _ reeked _ of stale drugs. There was also the window that didn’t close, making the whole vehicle feel like a freezer but that was easily ignored.

 

Lena wished she’d missed the bus. She wished she didn’t have to sit in this stupidly cold metal box on wheels with a bunch of people that she didn’t know and didn’t like, wished she was in the Danvers’ car with Kara and Winn.

 

Wished she was with Kara.

 

Realistically, she knew that she could go up to the common room as soon as she got to college and that the blonde would probably be there but, at the same time, she knew that she wouldn’t do that. Yes, Kara had extended an open offer, but Lena was hesitant to accept it. What if the other girl had changed her mind? What if the rest of the group didn't like her? She knew it was silly but she couldn’t help it; years without friends will make it difficult for you to start trying to have them.

 

Lena almost forgot to leave the bus when it finally stopped at college. She decided to blame it on the drug fumes that she’d probably inhaled from the person sitting next to her instead of the thoughts that were swirling about her head.

 

Getting off the disgusting vehicle, she glanced in the direction of the common room and considered, for a moment, if maybe she  _ should  _ go up there. 

 

But then she shook herself and trekked off to the RC, determined to put Kara Danvers and her gorgeous smile out of her mind and actually get some work done.

 

Alas, it was not to be.

 

Very few notes were made that morning.

 

******

 

Lena’s day was fairly normal. She was surprised in computer science, though, when Winn came and sat at the monitor next to hers.

 

“Hey,” he greeted. “Didn’t see you this morning.”

 

Lena shrugged.

 

“The bus came,” she explained simply.

 

“Oh, right, yeah… the bus.” 

 

He trailed off.

 

“Kara missed you this morning, you know,” Winn said after a few moments.

 

Lena felt her face flush slightly and her heart did a bit of a jump.

 

“Did she?”

 

Lena tried to seem less interested than she really was and was surprised at how steady her voice managed to be when she was having a bit of an internal mini mental breakdown.

 

“Yeah,” Winn carried on. “We got to by the bus stop and she was peering out the window like a meerkat looking for you.” He did a small, probably over exaggerated, impression of Kara as he was speaking and Lena laughed. 

 

“Hey, are you on Facebook?” he asked after they’d both stopped giggling.

 

The question caught Lena off guard.

 

“Uh, yeah.”

 

“Can I add you?”

 

“If you want to, I suppose.”

 

“Great.”

 

He pulled Facebook up on his computer and sent the friend request. Lena pulled up Facebook on her own monitor and accepted it.

 

Winn then sent her a message

 

_ Hi _

 

“Winn, we are literally sitting right next to each other.”

 

_ Shhhhhh _

 

A smile played at the corners of Lena’s mouth.

 

_ Weirdo.  _ she sent to him.

 

Winn looked scandalised.

 

It was the most fun computer science lesson that Lena had ever had.

 

******

 

After getting the college bus back home and walking for the five minutes that it took to get back to the family mansion, Lena arrived home and went straight up to her room, flinging her bag into a corner and plugging her phone into the wall to charge.

 

She flopped face first on her bed, knowing that dinner would be ready in ten minutes or so but not really caring. She hated family mealtimes; they were always so stiff and formal and Lena  _ despised _ the way her mother would criticise whatever it was she was doing with her life at that moment in time that she could deem ‘improper’. The woman had always been against her. It made Lena wonder why on earth she’d agreed to adopt in the first place, even if it  _ did  _ make the family look good.

 

Still though, she only had to put up with another few years of the blatant disappointment and thinly veiled disdain that rolled off her adoptive parents in waves that kept threatening to knock Lena over but never did. After that, she was off to university and she was never coming back. Oh, sure, she’d have to stay in touch, keep up appearances for the public and all that but the important thing was that she wouldn’t have to live under their roof, under their rules; she could finally break away do what it was that  _ she  _ wanted to do with her life, express herself in ways that simply were not permitted in this sorry excuse for a home.

 

*****

 

An hour and a half later and Lena was ready to pass out.

 

Dinner had, indeed, been just as painful and exhausting as she had anticipated; long stretches of silence accompanied by passive-aggressive remarks that were aimed in Lena’s general direction but were never said directly  _ to  _ her, instead being spoken to the room at large. Lillian was very fond of this method of criticism.

 

There was a time when Lex, or even Lionel Luthor, would have spoken up to defend the youngest family member but Lex had his own place now and only came over on Sundays for a family meal and Lionel… well, Lionel was not quite as fond of her as he had once been. 

 

After all, getting thrown out of an expensive boarding school generally tended to put a strain on any parent-child relationship. It just so happened that, in Lena’s case, that relationship had been cut to ribbons, set on fire and thrown out of a window into a landfill.

 

Still, she was determined not to let them get to her.

 

They could act like they wished she didn’t exist, they could stomp on everything she held dear, they could take away her passions and pastimes but the one thing that they would not do, the one thing that they wished they could do most, was break her. 

 

Of course, they wouldn’t see it as breaking so much as they would see it as fixing; fixing her personality, her identity. Turning her form the person she was, the person she wanted to be, into an empty shell to carry on the family name.

 

But they wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t let them. Even if it meant running away, Lena would find a way to escape their oppressiveness.

 

Sighing, Lena pulled her homework out of her bag and got to work. She didn’t exactly have much else to do; no friends usually equated to no social life and there wasn’t anything she was particularly interested in watching.

 

Of course, reading was an option but Lena would much rather get her work out of the way as opposed to having it sitting in the back of her mind whilst she delved into fantasy worlds full of magic and dragons. She was planning on beginning a re-read of the entire Harry Potter series once her work was out of the way.

  
And so, grabbing her headphones, Lena settled into a long night of ignoring everyone and everything except the music that filled her ears and the words on the page in front of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so concludes chapter 3, I hope you all enjoyed it.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and feel free to point out where I screwed up spelling and grammar.
> 
> See you in three days,
> 
> Three.


	4. Chapter 4

The weekend passed in a blur of Hogwarts and revision for Lena. She only saw her family at mealtimes and, when she did, the only thing she could think of was escaping back to her room to read. Thankfully, she was never detained for long, both her parents not really caring for her presence.

 

Monday morning could only be described as disgusting; the sky was grey and looked like it was going to start raining at any moment. Wind whipped about and knocked leaves off trees and Lena really hoped that she wouldn’t have to wait in it for long before the bus turned up. She’d done it a few times in the last couple of weeks and, honestly, it was one of the worst experiences ever; no matter how many layers of clothing you wore, the wind would find it’s way inside, stealing any warmth you may have brought with you from home and leaving you with only a cold that seemed to settle deep in your bones. Gloves were no use unless you shoved your hands so far into your pockets that you threatened to tear them but that wasn’t possible when it was also raining and you needed to hold up an umbrella in a laughable attempt to protect yourself from the downpour. Raindrops would lash at your face, soaking you completely every time the wind blew your umbrella upside down and your nose and ears would be so cold and they’d hurt so much that you’d fear they’d been cut off.

 

No, Lena was fairly certain that she’d rather do almost anything to avoid repeating that sort of experience.

 

Leaving the house, she found that the weather wasn’t quite as bad as she’d thought it was but it was still pretty miserable; it wasn’t raining, per say, but it seemed to be trying. There was definitely water in the air but it wasn’t enough to warrant an umbrella. Apparently it had rained heavily overnight though and there were huge puddles that Lena had to navigate on her little walk.

 

The bus breezed past her when she was about 10 metres from the bus stop so she jogged a bit to catch it, settling into her seat and ramming her headphones into her ears one she did. In all honesty, Lena was surprised that the bus had managed not to be late for this length of time; she would have been happier if she’d managed to catch it the first two days but she’d take what she could get.

 

As usual, the bus ride was not exactly what you would call fun; the window still wasn’t closed, Mr. E-cigarette was back and someone had apparently decided that it would be incredibly entertaining to set off a stink-bomb somewhere near the middle of the bus. At least, that was what Lena gathered from the sudden stench which was accompanied by raucous laughter.

 

Gosh, how she wished she’d missed the bus today.

 

*****

 

Things only seemed to get worse for Lena as the day wore on; something was wrong with the computers in the RC so she spent ten minutes trying to log in before one of the staff saw fit to inform her that they were currently experiencing technical difficulties, she’d left her book at home thinking that she wouldn’t have time to read it so she had nothing to do that morning but go over the lesson notes that she already had. 

 

First lesson was a fairly dull affair; business studies usually were for Lena. She’d only taken it to get her mother to shut up and she regretted her decision every single second she was in the class. She knew she’d probably have a role to play in the family company one day but, given the current tensions, it would be a very minor role and it would be a long time before she was deemed ready for it. 

 

Second period was a bit better but Lena honestly despised the man who taught it. The guy was totally incompetent, writing equations incorrectly, messing up the simplest of things and having absolutely no control over the class, half of which were playing Cards Against Humanity on the class computers that they were supposed to be using to make notes off of. Lena was pretty much the only person in the room actually doing physics like she was supposed to.

 

By lunch, the youngest Luthor was ready to fling herself off the art block tower.

 

So miserable was she that she decided to go into town and get something to eat from the Pound Bakery; two sausage rolls and three cookies. Lena knew she’d very much regret it later so she also bought an apple from the market that had set up in the square to make herself feel less guilty.

 

Somehow, she managed to eat almost all of the food without feeling ill, deciding to save two of the cookies for later.

 

Finally,  _ finally _ , it was time for computer science.

 

Lena practically threw herself into her chair and collapsed over her keyboard. It was only when she heard more of the class coming in that she actually sat up and logged into the computer. 

 

The ‘technical issues’ from this morning had obviously been sorted out and Lena was grateful because at least she didn’t have to fill another hour of her life with useless nonsense today.

 

“You,” Winn said, sliding into the chair to her left, “need to go on Facebook more often.”

 

“Hello to you too, Winn,” Lena sighed, tipping her head back and rubbing her eyes. “My day was fine thanks, how was yours?”

 

“I’m serious!” Winn shuffled his chair closer to Lena’s. “I had to spend all weekend listening to Kara worrying about why you hadn’t accepted her friend request.”

 

Lena’s heart did the thing again. She remover her hands from her face and sat up straight.

 

“Kara sent me a friend request?” 

 

She sounded ridiculously hopeful, like a kid in one of those silly romances that the girls in her boarding school used to read.

 

“Yeah.” Winn didn’t seem to notice, thankfully. “She saw I was friends with you and almost broke her phone trying to send it.” He shook his head. “Alex also sent you one but she’s got waaaaaay more chill than Kara soooo…” He trailed off.

 

Lena was still trying to process Kara sending her a friend request.

 

“Hey, come here,” WInn said after a few seconds, reaching across Lena to grab her mouse and open up a window on her computer. He brought up Facebook then sat back for Lena to put in her details and Lena was about to, but then they were interrupted.

 

“Winn, Lena.”

 

They both turned around to sheepishly face their teacher.

 

“That,” he pointed at Lena’s monitor, “doesn’t look like work.”

 

They both mumbled a ‘sorry sir’ and then dutifully got on with what they were supposed to be doing for a few minutes.

 

“Log on later,” Winn whispered to Lena when the teacher had stopped watching them out of the corner of his eye. 

 

The Luthor nodded, not looking away from her screen.

 

“I will.”

 

“Good, because if I get one more message -”

 

“Winn!”

 

“I’m working, Sir.”

 

*****

 

Lena had to suffer through one more lesson after computer science before she had a free period in which she could safely log onto Facebook. 

 

When she did, sure enough, there was the friend request from Kara. The blonde’s profile picture was of her and Alex with an absolutely gorgeous golden labrador retriever. It made Lena smile like a dopey idiot as she clicked the ‘accept’ button.

 

Alex’s profile picture was similar; it was a selfie with Alex smiling in the corner as Kara was being knocked out of her chair by the dog. 

 

Lena accepted that request as well and then moved onto looking at the messages that had been sent to her by Winn over the weekend. 

 

Friday

_ Hey, you there? _

_ I mean, I know you might not be because the little green dot isn’t on but sometimes it’s not and the person is still on line. _

_ I’m thinking you’re not there. _

 

Saturday

_ Lena? _

_ Still not online I take it _

_ Or are you ignoring me? _

 

_ I’m choosing to believe you’re not ignoring me. _

 

_ Okay Lena if you’re ignoring me then please stop. Kara’s sent you a friend request and she’s freaking out a bit that you haven’t accepted it _

_ Lena please _

_ Lena she’s not shutting up _

_ She thinks you’re ignoring her _

_ She keeps denying that she’s worried but she’s checking her phone every five minutes _

_ L E N A _

 

Sunday

_ Lena I think she’s died _

_ Alex says she’s been sitting on the sofa eating ice cream for at least an hour just staring at Facebook _

 

_ Okay I give up. See you on Monday _

 

Lena sat back and almost laughed. Instead, she settled for blowing air out of her nose in amusement. She’d never been sent so many messages in a row like that in her life.

 

_ You’ll be glad to know that I’ve accepted her request, so you can stop worrying now.  _ she sent to Winn.

 

She logged off and collected her things from under the table before making her way out of the RC. 

 

Lena decided to go to the town library and see if they had the book she was currently reading in so she could entertain herself for the half-hour before she needed to get the bus home.

 

Surprisingly, they did!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the lack of Kara in these last two chapters but, rest assured, she'll be in it very soon. 
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and I would love it if you point out any spelling and grammar mistakes.
> 
> Thanks for reading and being so patient,
> 
> Three


	5. Chapter 5

Tuesday rolled around and Lena really was not in the mood for it; it was her busiest day. She had no free periods and was forced to sit through the tedium that was the English baccalaureate, doing such mundane, useless tasks as planning imaginary weddings. Lena tended to consider herself to be an attentive, model student, but even she found herself almost succumbing to sleep during these lessons.

 

The weather that morning was, somehow, worse than her mood; torrential rain and gale-force winds. Well, it wasn’t  _ that  _ bad but it was still utterly horrendous.

 

Being sure to wrap herself in more layers than would probably be strictly necessary, Lena left the house and began began the long, arduous trek to the bus stop. 

 

The walk was awful; she could barely open her eyes against the cold and the wind and the rain and she’d forgone an umbrella, knowing that it would be utterly useless. Her coat didn't have a hood, leaving her hair exposed to the elements and, within seconds, it seemed, it was soaked through and stuck to the sides of her face and the back of her neck. The wind was so fierce that it almost blew Lena back and she had to fight for every step she took. Yesterday's puddles were now miniature ponds and she would have gone around them if she could but some spanned the width of the road and we're unavoidable. 

 

Lena was only halfway to the stop when the bus drove past her.

 

Unfortunately, this was also at the time when Lena was attempting to navigate a particularly large puddle and so she got soaked, of course. She swore that the universe was against her and then swore loudly at the driver.

 

The bus didn’t even have the decency to stop as Lena stood in shock at the sudden intense cold and so she was forced wipe the water out of her eyes and run after it, again, cursing everything she could as she did so.

 

When, inevitably,  the bus drove off without her, Lena gave up.  She was cold, wet, and she doubted that the Danvers would be able to spot her through the liquid misery that was falling from the sky.

 

She almost made the very stupid decision to sit on the ground but her pride wouldn't let her. That and she didn't want to get her clothes dirty as well as wet.

 

A flash lit up the sky and thunder boomed in the distance as Lena caught her breath.

 

But then the Danvers’ car pulled up, the back door was thrown open and the young Luthor was practically dragged into the car by Kara who, it appeared, was stronger than she looked.

 

“Lena, you look freezing!” There was genuine concern in her voice and Lena was touched that she cared.

 

“That’ll be because it’s cold, Kara,” she deadpanned, pulling a seat belt over her sodden body. 

 

The blonde was beautiful today; she was wearing a knitted jumper with an owl depicted in beads on the front of it and her hair was pulled into twin braids which fell over her shoulders. Despite the earliness of the time, some stray hairs had already escaped from the style and fell over her face. Lena’s hand twitched with the desire to tuck the wayward strands behind the other girl’s ear.

 

And then the Luthor caught sight of herself in the rearview mirror out of the corner of her eye; her mascara was running down her face, making her look like a sad panda, and her hair was way past salvaging. 

 

“Oh, gosh. I look awful,” she lamented. 

 

“You really do.”

 

She shot a half hearted glare at Winn. 

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Lena, what happened?” Kara offered the other girl a tissue that would probably end up being of very little help. “This isn't just from the rain,  is it?”

 

Lena took the proffered item and began the monumental task of fixing the mess that was currently her face.

 

“The bus,” she began, dabbing at the black streaks that adorned her normally flawless skin, “decided that it was appropriate to drive through a pool of water when I happened to be walking past and then drive off without acknowledging what it had done.”

 

“Oh no.” Kara was all sympathy. “That’s terrible.”

 

For a moment, Lena briefly entertained the idea of getting splashed by busses more often if it meant that Kara would look at her with the same softness with which she was doing so right now.

 

“When we get to college,” Winn announced, leaning over Kara and pointing at Lena, “ _ you  _ are coming to the common room with us and sitting by the radiator until you’re dry.”

 

Lena was momentarily confused.

 

“But they don’t turn the heating on until after half term.” She knew this because she had asked only last week why the heating wasn’t on in the RC.

 

“Kara,” Alex said, turning around in her seat, “managed to persuade the common room monitor to let us have it on early.”

 

“Guys!” Kara blushed and fidgeted with her glasses. “I just asked nicely.”

 

“Oh yeah,” nodded Winn. “ _ Very _ nicely.” He winked exaggeratedly Lena who tried to suppress a smile but failed.

 

Alex was sniggering away in the front seat and Eliza was shaking her head with a mixture of amusement and disappointment.

 

Kara, on the other hand...

 

“What?” She looked desperately around at everyone. “He’s telling the truth!”

 

The volume of laughter rose.

 

“I don’t see what’s - oh,” she paused. “I get it now.”

 

“Took you long enou- OW!”

 

Kara punched Winn in the bicep.

 

*****

 

Upon reaching college, Lena found herself being taken by the arm and pulled up to the common room by Kara. She couldn’t have resisted, even if she wanted to, but the youngest Luthor didn’t mind. In fact, she was rather glad that she was actually being guided by the other girl to her destination because it gave her absolutely no opportunities to chicken out and flee back to the RC and the work she didn’t need to do.

 

The blonde led Lena into the building and up the stairs next to the canteen. They made a right at the top of the ascent and entered a room that was only slightly bigger than most of the classrooms on site.

 

Lena had never been in the common room before so she took the opportunity to take everything in as Kara dragged her over to a large table in the corner of the room.

 

The walls were alternating shades of pale violet and a darker purple and the furniture was all light wood and black fabric. There were windows in most walls and the lights were on, giving the place a nice, open feel whilst simultaneously remaining cosy enough to feel comfortable. There were only a few people in the room at this time of the morning but Lena suspected that it would soon be a lot busier.

 

The table that Kara, Winn and Alex were all heading towards was slightly out of the way, in a little alcove. It meant that everyone was close together and reminded Lena, in some ways, of a happy little family. The sight sort of warmed her heart.

 

It probably would have done so even more if she actually knew the people at the table or, at least, knew the ones she  _ did _ know a bit better. Sure, she knew Winn a little bit and was  _ beginning _ to know Kara, but Alex was still a bit of a mystery to her and the others were complete strangers.

 

Kara steered Lena in the direction of the radiator and a girl who was almost as damp as the young Luthor herself.

 

“Guys,” Kara called the attention of the group, “this is Lena.”

 

“Ah, yes.” The boy who had spoken was lounging in his chair, his feet on the table. “Winn’s nemesis, I believe.”

 

Kara ignored him.

 

“That’s Mon-El,” she said to Lena, gesturing at the boy who had spoken, “Lucy,” the girl already sat by the radiator waved, “James, and Maggie.”

 

The last two both reached over the table and shook Lena’s hand one after the other, smiling as they did so and uttering versions of ‘hi’. 

 

Lena smiled back and returned the greetings before Kara gently pushed her into a sitting position on one of the chairs by the radiator.

 

“So,” said Lucy, turning to face the young Luthor, “how’d you get so wet?”

 

“She looked at me,” Maggie interjected before Lena could reply.

 

Alex snorted in laughter and elbowed the girl playfully in the ribs.

 

“Hah, yeah,” Mon-El piped up. “Or, y’know, she looked at me.” He looked around the group as if searching for confirmation that he was funny.

 

The smiles of the group stiffened and became forced. Only Kara’s looked genuine any more.

 

“Oh, please,” Lena spoke up almost immediately. “You’d struggle to get someone wet even if you had a bucket of water on hand.” She regretted it instantly, worrying that she’d overstepped her boundaries but-

 

“Eyyyyyy!!” Maggie leant over for a high-five. She returned it calmly.

 

Lena silently thanked… something… that that remark was acceptable. She’d made that sort of mistake before and pushed people away. Thankfully, no one seemed to mind.

 

Well, for the look on his face, she  _ may _ have hurt Mon-El’s feelings but no one really looked like they cared all that much so Lena chose not to either; there was just something about him that she didn’t like.

 

“So, aside from looking at Maggie,” Lucy continued, “why  _ are _ you so wet? You came in with Kara, right?”

 

Lens sighed.

 

“I was supposed to get the bus. It splashed me and I missed it.”

 

There were winces of sympathy from many people.

 

“That’s rough,” she heard James say.

 

“And you?” Lena asked back.

 

“Dad think’s walking to college is character building.”

 

“Ah.”

 

Lucy smiled. “And I looked at Maggie, of course.”

 

Maggie blew a kiss across the table.

 

It was like that for the rest of the morning; cheerful ribbing of each other and soft conversation about fairly neutral topics. Maggie did some of the homework she was supposed to do at least a week ago, Kara started eating a bag of pretzels that Alex informed Lena would  _ not  _ last until lunch and James, apparently, was trying to sneakily take pictures of people when they weren’t looking.

 

All in all, it was a very pleasant morning.

  
Lena was definitely glad she’d missed the bus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, look at that, she missed the bus again. How unexpected.
> 
> You know, I've only ever had the displeasure of being splashed by a bus once in my lifetime but it is truly an experience I never wish to repeat. As such, I naturally subjected Lena to it.
> 
> Anyway, as always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and, if you spot and spelling or grammar mistakes, please do point them out to me.
> 
> The next chapter will be up in three days,
> 
> Thanks for reading,
> 
> Three
> 
> P.S. I've forgotten to mention that I'm actually also on tumblr at https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/ so if you want to come and talk to me you can.


	6. Chapter 6

Lena had computer science first, which she walked to with Winn. The classroom was up three flights of stairs and, by the time they got to the top, they were both a little out of breath.

 

“Thought you’d be more in shape than this,” Winn had teased her, “what with all that running after busses you’ve been doing recently.”

 

Lena had pretended offence and pushed him into a wall.

 

After that, the lesson had been pretty average; they’d managed to avoid being told off for talking for all of five minutes before the teacher decided to shut them up. Lena scored the highest in the class for the recent homework they’d been set, Winn only two points behind her. He pretended to ignore her for the rest of the lesson, something Lena found highly amusing.

 

Break rolled around and Winn managed to coax Lena into coming and standing in the foyer outside the RC with him. She’s been ready to protest; that part of the college was inexplicably cold at all times of the year, but Winn had mentioned that Kara would be there and Lena decided that the cold was worth it.

 

They had to wait a few minutes but, sure enough, the blonde turned up with Alex and Lucy in tow. Mon-El turned up shortly after that with James and Maggie close behind.

 

Kara had with her a bag of chocolate buttons that she insisted on sharing with everyone, especially Lena when it was discovered that the Luthor hadn’t brought anything to nibble on between lessons like everyone else.

 

“What time do you have breakfast?” Kara had all but demanded.

 

“Um, about 6 o’clock,” Lena had told her, taken aback at the line of questioning and wondering where on earth the blonde was going with this.

 

“And you don’t have anything to eat until lunch?”

 

“No, I don’t.”

 

Kara had then promptly grabbed a handful of buttons for herself and then thrust the rest of the bag at Lena.

 

“Here.”

 

“Kara, it’s fine.”

 

“Six hours without food is not ‘fine’, Lena.” She shook the bag at the young Luthor. “Eat.”

 

“Not everyone needs constant feeding like you.” Alex elbowed her sister in the ribs. “She doesn’t have to have them if she doesn’t want to.”

 

“She might die, Alex!”

 

“It doesn’t work like that.”

 

“Oh, for goodness sake.” Lena took a handful of buttons and put one in her mouth. “Look, not starving!”

 

Kara grinned in triumph.

 

*****

 

“Come find us at lunch!” Had been Lucy’s parting shout to Lena as she walked up the stairs to her next lesson, stuffing what was left of the chocolate buttons into her bag as she did so; Kara had been adamant that she take them.

 

“I will,” she had called back.

 

And she did, surprisingly enough.

 

Well, she went out to actually  _ buy _ lunch first but, once she’d purchased it, she made the trek back to the common room. She stopped in the doorway and scanned the room, looking for any sign of Kara or Winn as they were the ones she recognised best.

 

The group was in the same spot as they had been in the morning and Lena made her way towards them, carefully weaving her way between tables and trying not to knock into anyone, a task made rather difficult considering most of the people in the room seemed to be in constant motion, flitting from table to table to visit friends and the like.

 

When she came closer to the table, Kara caught sight of her and almost seemed to light up, quickly shuffling up on the plush seat and moving her far-too-large-for-one-person lunch across the table a bit so that Lena could sit next to her.

 

Lena sat.

 

“Hi!” Kara was almost breathless with barely contained excitement. “You came!”

 

“I said I would.”

 

They smiled at each other for a moment, lost in each others eyes without even realising it. Lena was amazed that she’d never noticed just how blue the other girl’s eyes were; it was like looking at the sky on a clear day.

 

Then Maggie broke the spell.

 

“Hey, Luthor!”

 

Lean quickly snapped her attention to the other girl.

 

“Get your ass on Facebook and add me.”

 

“I’ll do it later,” she called back down the table.

 

“Lena’s useless with social media,” Winn informed the group. “Never online.”

 

“Oh! Is  _ that  _ why Kara was freaking out over the weekend?” Lucy asked.

 

“Guys!” the blonde in question tried to protest. “I wasn’t  _ freaking out _ , I was just, y’know-”

 

“Oh, Alex!” Alex cut in, throwing a hand up to her forehead. “Why hasn’t she accepted my friend request?! Do you think she- Ow!” She rubbed at the spot that Kara had just punched. “Prick. You ate all my ice cream, the least you can do is let me take the piss.”

 

“It wasn’t like that,” Kara mumbled around a mouthful of sandwich. “I’m not  _ that _ bad.”

 

“Kara, you messaged Winn to freak out to  _ him _ ,” the elder Danvers pointed out. “I’d say that constitutes as pretty bad.”

 

“But-”

 

“Oh, come on, Little Danvers.” Maggie threw a crisp at the blonde. “The traumatic event is behind us now; your girlfriend’s added you-”

 

Kara choked on her sandwich which triggered a coughing fit that lasted at least two minutes. Maggie watched the whole thing with a grin that said that this had been exactly what she was aiming to do.

 

Lena, on the other hand, was trying not have a mini-freakout over the thought of being Kara’s girlfriend. She knew, of course, that it had just been teasing but she’d still blushed bright red and tried to sink back into the seat a little whilst her poor gay heart tired to figure out how to work properly again. Thankfully, everyone had been too preoccupied with Kara to notice the young Luthor and, by the time the blonde had recovered, so had Lena.

 

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kara eventually managed to choke out, face red and eyes watering.

 

Maggie grinned even wider.

 

“I know.”

 

Kara threw a grape at Maggie.

 

There was a sudden ding of someone receiving a notification and everyone simultaneously pulled out their phones to see if it was them except Lena, who  _ knew _ that it wouldn’t be her, and James, who was looking just a little bit too pleased with himself.

 

As it turned out, the noise had come from Mon-El’s phone but everyone had received a notification through the wonderful magic of group chat.

 

“Eyyyy.” Maggie leant over the table and high-fived James. “Ten points to the candid camera.”

 

“This is going as the picture,” Lucy announced and hastily started fiddling about with her mobile.

 

“Lucyyyyyy,” Kara whined trying and failing to grab the other girl’s phone from her.

 

“What’s happened?” Lena asked, somewhat awkwardly. She felt a bit out of the loop but didn’t know if it was okay to inquire.

 

Kara thrust her phone into the Luthor’s hands in reply, still trying to tackle Lucy.

 

Lena studied the device in her hands and the picture that was displayed on in. Clearly taken by James, the image was of Lena and Kara grinning like idiots at each other. It had probably been taken shortly after the dark haired girl had sat down and had been captioned with the words ‘not girlfriends’. Someone nicknamed ‘Toy Soldier’, who she presumed to be Lucy, had put it as the group chat photo and ‘Functioning Alcoholic’ had written  _ ^^yes _ .

 

Kara sat back down in her seat and Lena offered her phone over.

 

“Thanks.” The blonde was a little out of breath. She took the device and locked it and then nearly put it away before hastily unlocking it again. “I’m adding Lena to the group chat,” she told everyone, looking around for permission.

 

“Go for it,” Alex told her.

 

Kara added the Luthor to the group.

 

Lena had no idea what she was in for.

 

*****

 

That night, Lena Luthor logged onto Facebook only to find that she had four friend requests and messages from Kara, Winn, Alex and the group chat. It was the most notifications she’d ever had.

 

She accepted the requests first. As she’d guessed, they were from Lucy, Maggie, James and Mon-El. From what she could see, Lucy’s picture was just a selfie but it was well taken and the girl looked good in it. Maggie had also opted for a selfie but her’s had the pride flag splashed over the top of. From this, Lena deduced that the girl was either very gay or very supportive. Mon-El’s was of himself at the gym flexing. If Lena was into that sort of thing, she’d be impressed. As it was, she couldn’t give a shit.

 

James’ picture was the hardest to decipher and Lena had no idea what it was of, at first; the image was monochrome and complicated. After careful scrutiny, Lena realised that it was a close up of part of a camera and felt like a complete idiot.

 

She moved onto messages next.

 

Alex’s simply said  _ Thanks for adding Kara and ending our suffering. _ She didn’t reply. Winn’s was along the same lines but with much more rambling and a few more ‘thank you!’s and Lena essentially ignored that one as well; she reasoned that it was well past the acceptable window of time in which to reply.

 

She briefly poked her nose into the group chat; not much had happened since she had been added to it at lunch. It was mostly people asking who was free and where they were so as to coordinate meeting up between lessons.

 

It was all rather sweet, really, Lena thought, the way they all just wanted to spend time with each other as much as possible. She hadn’t had those sorts of friends since she was, what, seven? Perhaps younger. 

 

Saying that, she wasn’t even sure if she’d had  _ friends _ since that age, let alone ones like Kara’s. 

 

In fact, Lena was pretty sure that the only person she’d known in the past decade that she could safely say had been a  _ friend _ , apart from Lex, of course, was-

 

No.

 

No, she wasn’t going to do this to herself again.

 

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Lena refocused on her messages, the only one of which she had left to read being from Kara.

 

It wasn’t long, only saying a simple  _ Hi! _ , but it made the young Luthor smile nonetheless.

 

It was then that she noticed that the blonde was online.

 

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she debated starting up a conversation. It would be so easy; just type a simple ‘hey’ and see where things went from there…

  
Lena logged out of facebook, shut her laptop down and buried herself in a book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's the end of that chapter. You're welcome.
> 
> So, I've got some mock exams coming up soon which I really need to pass or else I'll be kicked off the course so I miiiiiight have to miss a few updates at some point. I should have the next chapter finished by the time it's due to be uploaded though so we'll see how it goes.
> 
> So, I'm still on tumblr if you want to talk to me or anything along those lines at this url; 
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> I'm unfortunately not always online because I'm busy with college work from 6 in the morning to 6 at night and I also need to sleep but I do what I can.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and I'd love it if you could point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that I may have made so that I can go back and correct them.
> 
> See you in three days, and thanks for reading,
> 
> Three


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies if some of this is incoherent; I wrote part of it whilst fairly smashed and then edited it whilst still mildly pissed from the night before.

Lena missed the bus again on Wednesday, not like she was actually actively trying to get it today; she knew the Danvers would probably turn up, feeling slightly more at ease with catching a lift with them now and, besides, she had a free period first thing which meant that she didn’t really even need to be on the bus this morning at all. She still went into college, though; she liked to go and work in the RC when it was quiet. It was either that or stay home and work and Lena was really not very good at that, what with there being so many distractions about, so many books to read. She’d tried, of course, but found very early on that it was a fruitless endeavour.

 

When Lena reached the bus stop, she found, to her immense surprise, that she was not the only one to miss the stupid vehicle this morning; a boy was stood there, talking on the phone with his mother and trying to bargain for a lift because he didn’t have the money for the fair for the service bus. 

 

The Danvers turned up only a few minutes later and the back door was opened for the Luthor. She sat down next to Kara and flashed her a smile as she clipped herself in and made herself comfortable.

 

“Hi,” Kara said, grinning back at Lena. 

 

Her eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement, although Lena had no idea what for.

 

“Hey, Lena,” said Winn from Kara’s other side. “You done the homework?”

 

She just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Right,” he nodded, “stupid question.”

 

“Sooo…” Kaar jumped in, “are you going to come up to the common room with us again today?” She was fiddling with her hands and looking up at Lena through the glassed that were slowly slipping down the bridge of her nose. It was adorable.

 

“Do you want me to?” Lena tried not to sound too hopeful but she needn’t have bothered because Kara practically screamed ‘YES!’ and grabbed at the other girl’s arm like it was a lifeline.

 

She then seemed to realise what she was doing and quickly let go of the Luthor and backed up into Winn, fiddling with her glasses and blushing slightly in embarrassment. 

 

“Y’know,” she stuttered, “if- if you want to. That is. I mean, you don’t have to-”

 

“Kara, I’d love to.” Lena cut her off before she could start rambling too badly.

 

“Okay,” was the whispered response, accompanied by a thumbs up and a shy smile. “Great.”

 

Alex snorted form the front seat and Lena smiled at the whole situation. She was very,  _ very  _ glad that she’d missed the bus today.

 

*****

 

When they got to college, Lena followed the others up to the common room and across to what she presumed was the group’s unofficial private table. James and Lucy were there, and waved to them as they came over, but Maggie and Mon-El were not and, as such,  _ did  _ not.

 

Kara cheerily waved back to them and flopped down into the seat next to Lucy, pulling Lena down beside her and leaving Alex and Winn to take the plastic seats opposite them.

 

As soon as Alex sat down, she leaned forwards over the table with her head in her arms and let out a noise that was part exhaustion, part frustration.

 

“Alex hates Wednesdays,” Kara explained.

 

The elder Danvers grunted in confirmation.

 

“Aww.” Lucy leaned forwards and ruffled Alex’s hair, receiving a glare from the redhead for her troubles. “Poor bab.”

 

“Blow me,” was Alex’s muffled response.

 

“Maybe later.” 

 

Lucy punctuated the statement with a wink that Alex couldn’t see but the other girl snorted anyway.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“Anytime, babe.”

 

There was quiet for a moment then-

 

“Maggie’s bailed on me, hasn’t she?” Kara asked.

 

“Yeah, she says she needs the extra sleep,” James told her. “I think she was on GTA ‘till about two in the morning.”

 

Kara groaned and joined her sister in lying on the table.

 

“Why does she do this to me?”

 

Alex turned her head slightly to better talk to her sister.

 

“You do know that you don’t have to be here right now either, right?” 

 

“I know.” Kara threw her hands up and leaned back. “But I don’t want to pay for the service bus.”

 

“You’d rather spend the money on food?” James guessed.

 

“Exactly!” she crowed. “Do you know how many donuts I could buy instead of getting the bus?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Fifteen.”

 

“That’s a fair amount of donuts,” Winn agreed. 

 

Lena was trying her best to keep up with the conversation but was, in all honesty, beginning to become rather lost.

 

“So, you have a free period now?” she asked Kara, who had resumed lying with her head in her hands.

 

“Yes.”

 

“She usually spends it with Maggie,” Lucy explained, “seeing as the rest of us have lessons to go to.”

 

“I don’t.” Lena tried to sound nonchalant but had a feeling that she failed miserably. “Have a lesson now, I mean.”

 

Kara shot up from the table so fast she banged her knee on it, causing the table to jump slightly into Alex’s face which left both Danvers sisters clutching at the injured part of themselves and moaning slightly, the elder of the two muttering several phrases of the gutter-born variety.

 

Lucy applauded sarcastically.

 

“Well done.”

 

“Thank,” was Kara’s response.

 

Eventually, she sat up, more slowly this time so as to avoid another incident.

 

“So you’ll stay with me?” she asked Lena hopefully.

 

Of course, this should have been the point at which the Luthor told Kara that she usually did work at this time as that had been what what she’d been planning to do. However…

 

“Of course.”

 

Kara’s whole face lit up and she dived at the other girl for a hug. Lena, for her part, went almost completely stiff; she wasn’t used to physical contact and this was rather unexpected.

 

Luckily, Kara seemed to realise that she’d made the Luthor uncomfortable and let her go fairly quickly, scooting away from her a little as she had done so in the car. Lena was both thankful and disappointed, something which monetarily confused her. There was something within her that flinched away from anyone touching her but there was another, buried part, that desperately wanted to be held. She wasn’t aware of that part until the other girl had let her go.

 

“Sorry,” the blonde was saying when Lena pulled herself away from her thoughts. “I just... sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I’m just really  _ really _ huggy and I’m sorry if you don’t like that or if it makes you feel weird or-”

 

“No, no, Kara, it’s fine,” the Luthor was quick to insist. “I’m just… not used to it, I suppose. Some warning would be nice, next time.”

 

“Right.” Kara nodded to herself. “Warning. I can do that.”

 

“Kara,” Alex said seriously, propping her head up on one hand so as to look her sister in the eye, “you’re worse than Krypto. There is no way in hell that you’ll be able to warn someone before hugging them.”

 

“Hey!” Winn jumped to the blonde’s defence. “ _ Nothing _ is as bad as Krypto. At least Kara understands ‘down’.”

 

Until this point, Kara had been slowly turning redder and redder of embarrassment by the second and was, apparently, trying to see if she could somehow phase through the back of the chair if she sunk back into it enough. However, it seemed that insulting her pet was enough to give her cause to join in the conversation again.

 

“Krypto’s really well trained!” she protested. “And he  _ does  _ know how to get down.”

 

“Yeah, you only have to shout it about five times really loudly before he does it,” Lucy chipped in. 

 

“He’s not  _ that bad _ .”

 

“Kara, he knocks me on my arse every time I come over.”

 

“That’s only because you’re tiny though,” Alex mused, grinning at the now glaring Lucy.

 

“I have pictures!” James announced loudly. He tapped on his phone a few times and then turned it around so everyone could see the screen. 

 

Sure enough, a wonderfully timed photo of Lucy being knocked flying by a huge labrador retriever was displayed for all to see. It perfectly captured Lucy’s look of panic and the dog’s look of absolute joy. James then swiped to the next image which turned out to be one of Lucy on the ground with the lab snuffling around her face. The girl had her eyes screwed shut by the looks of things.

 

There were several other images in a similar vein, some clearly from the same day, others from separate occasions. It was enough to get the point across.

 

“Okay,” Kara relented, “ _ maybe  _ he knocks Lucy over a lot. But he’s fine with everyone else!” She hastened to add.

 

“Is that the same dog that’s in your profile picture?” Lena enquired.

 

Kara turned gleefully to face the Luthor. 

 

“Yeah! He’s cute, isn’t he?”

 

“Very,” Lena agreed. “But that means that he’s also the same dog that’s tackling  _ you _ out of a chair in Alex’s picture.”

 

“HA!”

 

Lucy was so eager to point at Kara to emphasise her victory that she accidentally punched the blonde in the face.

 

Half an hour, many apologies and a lot of laughter later, Alex, Lucy, James and Winn all departed to attend their lessons. 

 

Kara and Lena waved goodbye to them as they went, Lucy having to drag ALex halfway across the common room on her chair before the redhead decided to stand up and walk for herself.

 

“So,” the blonde said once the others were out of view, “what do you wanna talk about?”

 

She smiled at the Luthor and Lena’s heart seemed to forget how to function correctly for a moment. It was then that it dawned on her that she’d essentially signed herself up for an hour and a half alone with Kara and that smile. She’d be lucky to get through it without suffering some sort of cardiac failure.

 

She smiled back at the other girl and Kara somehow managed to smile wider.

  
Maybe dying of cute was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I surprised myself and managed to get this out on time for you all. You're welcome.
> 
> I know this chapter is sort of filler-y but it just fell out of my head this way and so it's staying as it is. The next chapter will finally feature Lena and Kara actually interacting one-on-one for the first time so there's that to look forward to.
> 
> Anyway, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and I'd love it if you could tell me there I've made any spelling or grammar mistakes. I have a feeling that this chapter might have some somewhere in it as a result of both writing and editing it whilst under the influence of alcohol.
> 
> I can still be located on tumblr
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> if you want to talk to me or whatever.
> 
> Thanks for reading,
> 
> Three


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm going to have to stop updating this for a week or so because I need to focus on my mocks and this is taking up way too much of my time for me to be able to both revise and write. Everybody got that? Okay, onto the chapter.

‘What do you want to talk about?’. It was a question which Lena had never been asked and so had never had to answer. She had to answer it now, though, which brought up a whole other set of questions that she had to think about first; what was an appropriate topic of conversation for two people who didn’t know each other very well? Would it be weird to do the whole ‘tell me about you’ thing? Could she get away with talking about anything that had happened in the news lately? Did Kara enjoy talking about books?

 

Eventually, Lena decided to stick to safe a safe topic that she was sure Kara would take to.

 

“How long have you had Krypto?” she asked, sitting back as the blonde’s face lit up.

 

“Oh, he’s about three now. We got him when I was thirteen.” She giggled to herself. “He was so cute when he was a puppy! But he ate most of Alex’s shoes. Jeremiah said it was ironic, considering she’d been the one who’d wanted a dog so badly.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah, she thought it would help me, you know? Kinda like a therapy animal but not a trained one, just a puppy for us to play with. At least, that’s what she told me but I think part of her also just really really wanted a dog and saw this as her only chance to have one.”

 

“Therapy animal?” Lena regretted saying the words the moment they left her mouth as Kara seemed to visibly deflate a little.

 

She fidgeted with her glasses, either out of nerves or because she was uncomfortable, the Luthor couldn’t tell.

 

“Yeah, I…” She paused to collect her thoughts for a bit. “I’m adopted,” she said eventually. “My parents-”

 

“No, Kara, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Lena said hastily. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

 

The other girl smiled, though it was a smile tinged with sadness.

 

“Thanks.” Her voice was quiet and Lena almost didn’t hear her. “It’s fine though,” she carried on. “You didn’t know, and I want to-”

 

“I know but I shouldn’t have - I’m sorry, I just, you said ‘therapy animal’ and I didn’t mean to, it just slipped out and it shouldn’t have and-”

 

“Lena, it’s fine,” the blonde insisted. “Really.”

 

She held eye contact with the Luthor until the dark haired girl nodded and looked away.

 

“Besides, I think… I think I want to tell you what happened. It might… explain some things. In the future. If you stick around that long.”

 

“Kara-”

 

“No, Lena, I want to tell you.” She paused. “Unless it’s going to upset  _ you _ .” She looked at the Luthor with concern. “Will it upset you?”

 

“I-me?” Lena was confused. “Why would- I mean what do yo- you’re worried about upsetting  _ me?! _ ”

 

“Well, I mean, I know some people get really torn up over these sorts of things or you might have had something similar happen to someone you  _ know _ or-”

 

“No, no, I’m-I’m fine,” the other girl stuttered out. “I just- are  _ you  _ okay talking about this?”

 

Kara was silent for a moment, thinking. She picked idly at the edge of the table as she did so, little bits of wood being pulled away by her fingernails.

 

“Yeah,” she said eventually. “Yeah, I am.” That sounded more confident. “I think talking to people can help sometimes; I know it’s helped me before so I’m kinda used to speaking about it now so...yeah.”

 

“Okay,” the Luthor nodded, accepting the blonde’s decision. “If you’re sure.”

 

Kara nodded.

 

She was silent for a little bit longer before she spoke.

 

“My parents died in a car crash,” she began. “I was thirteen; they sent me stay with my cousin for the weekend while they went for a holiday in Scotland. I wanted to go with them but they wanted some time with just the two of them so Clark said he’d look after me. They left on Friday night, got hit by a drunk driver just as they were getting near to Pitlochry. We… we got the news that they’d died on Saturday morning.”

 

She’d ceased her picking at the table and now her hand was still, thumb hooked onto the piece of furniture as she stared resolutely straight ahead. Lena though she could see tears in her eyes but she couldn’t be sure, not from the angle she was at.

 

“After that, I don’t really remember all that much very clearly; I know Clark couldn’t keep me for obvious reasons and I know that the Danvers took me in because they knew my cousin and his parents but everything that happened over the weeks after the accident… it’s all just a bit of a mess in my head.” 

 

She sniffled and Lena realised then that she was crying. She reached out to put her hand on top of Kara’s but changed her mind at the last minute, instead opting to pick at the table as the blonde had been doing earlier.

 

“Anyway, the Danvers were really nice -  _ are  _ really nice. Well, Alex wasn’t at first but that’s understandable. I think I’d been there for three months before she warmed up to me and six by the time she asked about getting a puppy for me. The rest is pretty simple.”

 

She smiled a watery smile at Lena, sniffing a little more and wiping her eyes. She pulled a tissue out of her bag and blew her nose.

 

“Now,” she said once she’d finished cleaning herself up, “your turn.” She playfully bumped her shoulder into Lena’s. Her voice was still a little thick. “Have you got any pets?” 

 

“Pets?” The Luthor was confused. Why was Kara asking her about- oh. Right.  _ That’s  _ how they’d gotten onto that topic. Oh how strange conversations were. “No,” she said. “Mother won’t let animals in the house.”

 

It was true; Lillian despised anything with fur or feathers or scales. Lena found her distaste of that last category to be most amusing considering the woman was so cold-blooded. In fact, the closest thing the family had to a pet was Lena herself, the little project that they took in for a bit of positive publicity.

 

“Aww.” Kara looked genuinely sad, though that may have been because her eyes were still slightly puffy from crying. “Who wouldn’t want to give a cute little animal a home?”

 

Lena grinned wryly.

 

“They gave  _ me _ a home.”

 

The blonde looked a bit shocked.

 

“Wait,” she said, shaking her head and looking at the Luthor as if she had two heads, “gave you a- but you’re their  _ daughter _ , they- wait, what?”

 

Lena waited patiently for the gears in Kara’s head to click into place.

 

“You’re adopted too?!”

 

The dark haired girl nodded. 

 

“They took me in when I was four,” she explained. “Before that, it was group homes and foster homes. I never knew my birth parents and I don’t care to find them. The Luthors, they’ve…” She paused, unsure of how to really continue. “They’ve been good to me,” she settled on eventually. A lie really, of course, especially in relation to the past few years, but Kara didn’t need to know that.

 

The blonde smiled sadly at Lena, almost as if she sensed that there was something that the Luthor wasn’t telling her, and gently placed her hand on top of the other girl’s where it was still busy picking at the edge of the table.

 

Despite the tone of the moment, Lena’s heart still did a bit of a thing and she could feel a blush threatening to rise in her cheeks.

 

The two sat in silence for a while. Kara didn’t move her hand, instead rubbing little circles across the dark haired girl’s knuckles. It was nice. Well, as nice as could be after the topics they’d just covered.

 

“So….” Lena said after a while. “Do you… like Harry Potter?”

 

Kara’s eyes lit up.

 

*****

 

By the time break rolled around, Lena had found out that the blonde was very enthusiastic Hufflepuff who hated Snape with every fibre of her being and thought she’d be great a quidditch. When the Luthor had told her she was a Slytherin, Kara had refused to believe it and had made her take the official Pottermore quiz as well as another one comprised of 125 questions. She only stopped insisting that Lena should be a Ravenclaw when the dark haired girl came out as Slytherin in both tests with Ravenclaw a close second.

 

“That’s possibly one of the most dangerous combinations to have,” she’d said seriously.

 

Lena only grinned darkly in response.

 

Kara’s favourite of the golden trio was Ron, Lena’s was Hermione. The blonde said that Maggie would have made a joke about how they were meant for each other at this point and the Luthor agreed, despite only having me the girl the other day and then spent the next few minutes attempting to convince Kara that Dumbledore had been a bit of a dick, good intentions or no.

 

After that, Lena learned of the other girl’s elaborate plan to sneak Krypto into Hogwarts which involved fireworks, Peruvian instant-darkness powder, befriending the house elves and a lot of general sneakiness.

 

“Why couldn’t you just get someone to transfigure him into a cat?” she’d asked. “That way, you could just walk in with him, turn him back into a dog in the common room and turn him back into a cat whenever her needed to go out. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the school kitchens violating any health-codes.”

 

Kara had been gobsmacked.

 

Eventually, it was, unfortunately, time for lessons and so the pair grabbed their bags and made their way to their respective classrooms but not before Kara had made Lena eat some of the giant bag of doritos she’d brought for a snack. The Luthor had tried to resist at first but Kara had turned on the puppy-dog eyes and Lena was slain.

 

They agreed to meet back at the common room at lunch, passing Alex who was on her way back from her own class and was muttering something about defenestrating herself.

 

When it came time to part ways in the courtyard, the blonde pulled the Luthor into a quick hug that Lena didn’t even have time to properly react to, smiled, waved and then was gone.

 

Lena walked up to computer science in a bit of a daze.

 

Today looked like it was going to be a good day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaaaay! I did another chapter on time! I honestly didn't expect this chapter to go the way it did but, hey, what can you do? 
> 
> Just to reiterate what I said at the top, I'm not going to update this for about a week or so because of mock exams. You have all been warned.
> 
> I'm still on tumblr at
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> if you want to come find me/talk to me/scream at me/whatever. I love it, really I do.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and it would be amazing if you could please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes; I'm doing this without a beta reader/editor you know so, if you see something, please tell me.
> 
> So, yeah, basically. See you in six/nine days depending on what happens, 
> 
> Three


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyyyyy, I'm alive! I said I'd be back and here I am, barely on time with this one. Enjoy :)

When Lena entered the classroom, she was surprised to find Winn already seated; the boy was never late but, at the same time, he was never really what one could consider to be early. Here he was though, slumped in front of a computer monitor with his head on the desk. He wasn’t even logged in and Lena briefly entertained the idea that he might have fallen asleep; after all, he wouldn’t be the first to doze off in a lesson.

 

Winn didn’t acknowledge the Luthor when she sat down next to him, didn’t even move or show any signs of life. Deciding to leave the boy to whatever it was he was doing, Lena logged herself in and brought up the work that they would be continuing with during the lesson as well as locating the homework that was due in.

 

After a few minutes of awkward silence with Lena twiddling her thumbs and Winn still sitting with his head in his arms, the Luthor came to the conclusion that the boy was probably asleep and that she should probably wake him up before the teacher walked into the room. That’s what friends did, after all.

 

“Winn?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

Ah, so he  _ was  _ awake. That was one mystery solved.

 

“Is sir here yet?” Winn mumbled into his arms.

 

“Err…” Lena glanced over her shoulder. “No.”

 

“Good.”

 

He burrowed further into his arms and let out a long sigh, partway between relaxation and exhaustion. A few moments later, he took a deep breath, sat up straight and rubbed his eyes.

 

“I hate,” he said, stretching his arms over his head, “Bacc.”

 

“Is that what you’ve just had?”

 

“Uh-huh.”

 

Lena winced.

 

“My sympathies.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

There was quiet between them for a moment as Winn logged into his computer, copying the Luthor in pulling up the work he was planning to continue. He then opened another document, ominously titled ‘Suffering’. It was Bacc.

 

“This,” he said, angrily jabbing a finger at the words on the screen, “is what they had us doing today.”

 

Lena leant over the boy and peered at the screen. It appeared that the document had been appropriately titled and the Luthor’s blood ran cold at the thought that she, herself, would probably have to do this exact same thing after lunch. She shuddered delicately and then turned away from the monitor.

 

“Exactly.”

 

Winn seemed to take great pleasure in closing the document.

 

“And,” he held up a finger, “it’s group work.”

 

“Fuck.”

 

*****

 

The lesson passed smoothly, neither Winn nor Lena getting told off for talking and only one person had forgotten to do the homework so, overall, it was a pretty average hour and a half.

 

They parted ways at lunch, Winn heading off to the common room and Lena making her way into town to buy something to eat. Ten minutes later, the Luthor was walking towards the little table in the corner with her sandwich and drink clutched in her hands. 

 

As she got closer, she realised that everyone was acting a little odd. She opened her mouth to say hello but was silently shushed by Kara who was rapidly waving her hands about and gesturing to Alex who had, apparently, fallen asleep across the sofa-bench-chair. Maggie and Lucy were meticulously covering every part of her they could with Pringles, the tube standing open on the table in front of them and another, unopened one next to it.

 

As quietly as possible, the Luthor pulled up a seat next to Kara and sat down, depositing her bag onto the floor and unwrapping her sandwich. The blonde grinned at her, obviously having a hard time keeping from laughing; there was merriment dancing in the corners of her eyes and her cheeks were slightly flushed. Lena smiled back, she couldn’t help it.

 

It took another few minutes of silence, but, eventually, Maggie and Lucy sat back and admired their handiwork. The Luthor leant over the table so she could see the sleeping girl and them promptly had to suppress a burst of laughter as every inch of the elder Danvers was obscured by beautifully flavoured potato disks. Winn was in a similar predicament to Lena, grinning like an idiot through a mouthful of sausage roll, but Kara was, by far, struggling the most; she looked to be almost crying and actually turned to bury her head in Lena’s neck to stop herself making any noise, her body shaking with silent laughter. 

 

Lena’s brain may have short-circuited at that.

 

Carefully, James stood up and edged around to Lucy’s side where he took a few pictures of the spectacle.

 

“Imma wake her up,” Maggie whispered.

 

“No, wait,” the photographer protested. “Let me film it.” He pulled up the camcorder. 

 

“Okay?”

 

“Okay,” he confirmed, pressing record.

 

Maggie leaned over the sleeping girl’s head, opened her mouth, giggled a bit, clapped her hands over her mouth, cleared her throat, took a breath and then…

 

“ALEX!”

 

Lena swore that she’d never seen anyone move so fast in her life; Alex shot up into a sitting position, headbutting Maggie and scattering pringles everywhere as she did so. Then, to top it all off, she whirled round and punched the other girl, assuming a sleepy kind of fighting stance immediately after. Here eyes were wide open but unfocused and she was breathing heavily and it took a few seconds of looking about at everyone laughing before she seemed to realise what had happened.

 

“Oh my gosh.” She spun back to face Maggie, who was now curled up on the floor. “I am so, so sorry, are you okay?”

 

The smaller girl held out a thumbs up.

 

“Worth it.”

 

“Maggie, is your nose bleeding?”

 

“Worth it!”

 

Kara, who had been giggling like a maniac through the whole ordeal, suddenly stopped laughing and rushed over to her friend’s side, helping her to her feet and offering a tissue produced from who knows where to help stem the flow of blood.

 

“Kara, I’m fine,” the smaller girl insisted, but Kara was having none of it, tipping Maggie’s head back and holding the tissue in place. 

 

“I think I can  _ at least  _ manage to hold the tissue, Little Danvers.”

 

It was then that the common room monitor walked over. She looked from Kara and Maggie to Lucy, who was on her knees with her head on a chair, shoulders shaking in laughter, then to Alex and the mess of crisps surrounding her. Her eyes even landed on Lena at one point. Wordlessly, she turned and walked away, coming back a moment later with a dustpan and brush, which she handed to Winn before leaving for good.

 

Everyone looked at each other awkwardly for a little while, only resuming what they were doing when Kara realised that she still had a bleeding Maggie on her hands.

 

*****

 

The remainder of lunch was spent eating the rest of their food, salvaging what pringles they could and sweeping the rest into the dustpan to be transferred to the bin. They made Lucy do that last part, the whole thing having been her idea in the first place. Of course, the girl kept insisting that it was the best idea she’d ever had and demanded to be awarded house points for it (something Kara promised Lena she’d explain later). Alex had simply calmly crumbled a pringle into Lucy’s hair.

 

When it came time for lessons, Winn bade them all farewell and left to catch a bus home. Everyone else was then left with the daunting task of making Alex go to Bacc before heading off to their own lessons. Of course, it was just their luck that most of them were alone in their classes, only Kara and Lucy sharing the same teacher. 

 

Lena silently wished that she wasn’t alone in her lesson but, alas, it was not to be. Unfortunately, Winn had been correct; the class was absolute torture and the dark haired girl was forced to work with two incompetent morons who wanted to be there even less than the Luthor which, of course, resulted in Lena being the  _ only _ one to do any work. She considered herself lucky that her classroom was only on the ground floor, else she would have been tempted to throw herself out of the window.

 

And hour of what could only be described as absolute bullshit later and Lena was a free elf. She made her way out of the building and into the courtyard where she almost walked into Kara.

 

“Oh, hi Lena!”

 

The Luthor smiled at the blonde, all of the exhaustion and misery that had built up over the course of Bacc vanishing at the sight of the other girl.

 

“Hi.”

 

“Look!” Kara pointed up at the sky. “The sun’s out.”

 

Lena followed the blonde’s gaze upwards. “Huh,” she said. “So it is.”

 

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

 

“You are  _ far  _ too cheerful for someone who’s just had Bacc.”

 

Kara smiled, blushed and fidgeted with her glasses.

 

Then Alex showed up.

 

“Fuck,” she said by way of greeting.

 

“How was Bacc?” the younger Danvers asked innocently.

 

“Shit.”

 

“Alex…”

 

“Fuck.”

 

Lena snorted. She knew exactly how the redhead felt.

 

“Home,” was the next thing that Alex said, grabbing Kara’s arm and pulling her in the direction of the college carpark.

 

The Luthor waved to the sisters and turned to head off to the bus station but was suddenly tugged backwards. She looked down and found Kara’s hand in hers. She almost fell on her face from shock.

 

“Where are we-”

 

“Home,” Alex cut her off.

 

Kara smiled.

 

“Jeremiah has Wednesdays off,” she explained. “He comes to pick us up and I texted him at lunch to see if we could give you a lift home as well.”

 

Lena was touched. She wanted to say something but she couldn’t quite find the words, instead settling on gently squeezing the blonde’s hand and smiling.

 

The car ride home was nice; Jeremiah seemed like a good person, the music wasn’t terrible and Lena spent the whole trip squished next to Kara. Of course, they didn’t need to be sat so close together but the other girl had told Lena that she usually liked to sit in the middle when she could and she’d asked if Lena minded and, of course, Lena very much did not.

 

The Luthor was dropped off at the bus stop, insisting that she could walk home from there and she waved at Kara as the car drove away.

  
She couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo, so that was that. I actually had a bit of trouble writing this one; I blame too much mock revision destroying my creativity but I think I'm getting back into the swing of things so, if this chapter felt a bit lackluster, fear not for I shall be back up to my usual standard by next time.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and I'd really like it if you could point out any spelling and grammar mistakes that slipped my notice.
> 
> You can still find me on Tumblr here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> So see you in three days
> 
> Three


	10. Chapter 10

When Thursday morning rolled around after a rather long night of finishing the last of the Harry Potter series which led to Lena staying up until three o’clock in the morning like an idiot, it appeared that the bus had finally decided to fall back on it’s usual schedule; unpredictably late. This left Lena and anyone else who got the college-supplied transport waiting in the cold with no way of knowing when on earth it would decide to turn up. Of course, there were upsides to this situation if you were an optimist looking at it with a microscope, those being that no one could  _ possibly _ miss the bus this morning and that, in turn, no one would have to chase it down in heels.

 

Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, Lena Luthor was not an optimist, though she  _ did  _ own a rather nice microscope. No, Lena Luthor was cold, tired, and ready to strangle someone; she was running on less than three hours of sleep, hadn’t managed to grab a decent breakfast or a cup of coffee, and had somehow found a way to misplace her gloves. Needless to say, she was not a happy bunny.

 

And, to top it all off, she had to get the bus! Fan-fucking-tastic, in her opinion.

 

You see, Lena had started her morning as an irritable little shit who just wanted to curl up into a ball and either sleep or die. She’d considered going back to bed and missing her first lesson but had, ultimately, decided against it because staying home meant being in the same place as her mother and that was something Lena really did  _ not  _ want to do whilst sleep deprived and skipping college. She also figured that less college was equal to less Kara and less Kara sounded… well, she wouldn’t go so far as to say ‘awful’, but she had to admit that she’d grown rather fond of the girl in the short time she’d known her and so seeing less of her was certainly less than desirable.

 

But now Lena was facing the possibility of exactly that; after all, the Danvers would surely see that she  _ hadn’t  _ missed the bus, as evidenced by the two other students also showing the early stages of hypothermia and would, as such, drive right on past her. The only reason she’d been able to get a lift with them for so long was because she’d missed the bus so she saw no reason for them to pick her up otherwise. Kara would probably wave to her from the window as they passed. Oh well, she could always go up to the common room after the bus dropped her off; forty-five minutes without the blonde wouldn’t kill her.

 

She knew she was being a bit pathetic but Lena didn’t really care; she wasn’t thinking straight enough to. Sleep deprivation tended to have that effect on her.

 

She was startled out of her thoughts by a rather loud horn. At first, the Luthor thought it was just a car that was passing in the street, but then she realised that it had come from a car right in front of her; the Danvers’ car, to be precise. 

 

Alex waved at her from the front seat and Lena blinked slowly back. She only realised she had to move when the back door was thrown open, grabbing her bag from where she’d half-thrown, half-dropped it and scrambling into the seat next to Kara’s.

 

For some reason, Lena felt a little bit more awake in the car. She didn’t know if it was because of the warmth of the vehicle, the sight of her friends, or the way Kara’s eyes sparkled as she said ‘hi’ but, whatever it was, Lena was grateful for it.

 

“Lena, are you quite alright there, dear?” Eliza asked as she pulled the car away from the bus stop.

 

The Luthor looked up and found the older woman looking at her through the rear-view mirror, an expression of concern on her face. Apparently, Lena had  _ not  _ hidden her fatigue as well as she thought she had.

 

“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just a little tired, thank you.”

 

Eliza pursed her lips and looked as if she were about to say something else but ALex beat her to it, turning around in her seat the face the younger girl.

 

“You look like shit.”

 

“Alex!” Kara smacked her sister on the arm. “Don’t be mean.”

 

“I have been told all my life not to lie-”

 

“Never stopped you before,” Eliza muttered.

 

“-and here I am being told off for telling the truth!” The redhead turned to her mother. “And I heard that.”

 

“No, she’s right,” Lena pitched in, examining herself in the mirror. “I look awful.”

 

And she did; her hair was in a bit of a state, having been only roughly brushed and pulled back into a messy ponytail as opposed to the neat bun that she usually opted for, she was paler than normal for reasons unknown and there were enough barely concealed bags under her eyes to warrant a shopping trolley to carry them all. How she’d let herself leave the house like this, she’d never know.

 

“Did you just forget to sleep?” Alex asked. She’d turned back around in her seat and was now looking at the Luthor through the rear-view mirror.

 

“Something like that.” She rubbed her eyes. “ _The_ _Deathly_ _Hallows_ is a _very_ good book.”

 

*****

 

Half an hour later and they were all sat in the common room at their little corner table. Kara was still chattering about Harry Potter, had been since Lena had mentioned it in the car. The Luthor was trying her best to listen to the girl because she was making some  _ very  _ good points on whether or not the wizarding world had the equivalent of university but, unfortunately, she was becoming less and less focused as time went on. By the time blonde had finished talking about the topic, Lena was almost asleep, head propped up by her hand and eyelids drooping.

 

“Aww, poor bab,” Lucy had said when she saw the Luthor fighting to stay awake, patting the girl’s head in a condescending manner. “Don’t worry; only one more day then we’re off.”

 

“Off?” Lena was confused. “What do you mean ‘off’? Are you talking about the weekend?”

 

“Half term,” James supplied. “Didn’t you know?”

 

As a matter of fact, Lena  _ hadn’t  _ known and, if not for being told now, she probably would have attempted to turn up to college when it wasn’t on. Now  _ that  _ would have been a bit stupid.

 

“...Yes.”

 

“Oooooh!!!” Maggie seemed ecstatic. “Luthor didn’t know we had a week off,” she sang.

 

Mon-El snorted.

 

“Come on, even  _ I  _ knew we had half term on Monday.”

 

Under normal circumstances, Lena would probably have been annoyed with herself for missing out on such a vital piece of information, especially seeing as that information was known by someone such as  _ Mon-El  _ but, as it was, she couldn’t bring herself to give a shit so she just tiredly stuck her tongue out at the boy.

 

“Oh! That reminds me!” Kara was practically bouncing in her seat. “Who’s up for the cinema tomorrow night?”

 

*****

 

By the time Lena had to go to her first lesson, it had been decided that everyone was meeting up after college on Friday from where they would go to a cafe for a drink of some sort before heading to the cinema. They were undecided as to what film they’d see but were pretty sure that they’d figure it out soon enough. After the film, the plan was to locate a fast food restaurant and eat in it.

 

Lena had watched the organisation of this event, marveling at how it was possible. From her experience, planning something like this usually took a lot more time and was a lot more difficult. Then again, the only times she’d ever planned a trip like this had been in boarding school where part of the plan had been ‘escape the school under cover of darkness’ and then ‘re enter the school under cover of darkness whilst supporting your drunken classmates and hoping that no one notices Roulette’s new tattoo in the morning’. Yeah, these things were all  _ lot  _ easier to plan when they weren’t illegal.

 

However, as mentioned, she merely watched the proceedings, not thinking for a moment that she would be included in this string of activities and so not participating in the planning of it. It was only when Kara had turned to her and said ‘That works for you, right?’ that she’d realised everyone was waiting for her input.

 

“Oh, um, yeah. Sure,” she’d said, not  _ actually  _ knowing whether or not it did. She’d ask Lionel tonight and hope he said yes. If he didn’t? Oh well, she’d just … go anyway, she supposed.

 

She almost fell asleep in first lesson but, thankfully, didn’t. She kept herself busy by reading through all of the notes and working on the questions on her own as listening to her teacher was just making it hard to stay awake.

 

Eventually, it was time for break so she made her way down to the foyer in front of the RC, hoping that people would be there and that she wouldn’t just end up standing around like a lemon. 

 

Everyone showed up. They stood around for as long as they could, complaining about what they’d just had and gently ribbing each other. Kara had a bag of doritos that morning which she insisted the Luthor have some of. Apparently, someone not being hungry was a foreign concept to her.

 

“Free period now, Little Danvers,” Maggie said as the clock approached 10:40. “And I’ve got some homework due in for after lunch that I need to do.”

 

The blonde shook her head at the shorter girl in exasperation.

 

“You know, they call it  _ homework  _ because it’s supposed to be done  _ at home _ .”

 

“Yes, but GTA.”

 

“Oh! Maggie!” She jumped up and down a little and clapped her hands.

 

“Yes Kara?”

 

“I almost forgot; Lena has her free with us!”

 

Lena had also forgotten this, as it turned out.

 

“Well well well.” Maggie turned to the Luthor. “I hope you’ll enjoy keeping Kara from distracting me when I’m trying to work.”

  
For some reason, Lena thought that she’d enjoy doing that very much indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, would you look at that, it's the end of the chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it :)
> 
> Comments are still appreciated, feedback is still welcome and I'd love it if you could point out any spelling and grammar errors so I can fix them.
> 
> If you want to talk to me or something, you can find me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> I'm always up for a chat so if you want to say 'hi' then don't be shy.
> 
> I don't think I have anything else to say here so... see you in three days, I suppose.
> 
> Three


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit, it's a miracle; I actually finished this one before ten o'clock at night!

They waved goodbye to those who had lessons after another few minutes of idly standing about and then made their way up to the common room. Maggie pulled out a chair and slid into it whilst Lena practically collapsed over the table. All she wanted to do was sleep. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

 

“Hey, Luthor!”

 

Lena lifted her head just enough to look the latina in the eye.

 

“You’re on puppy-watch, remember? No sleeping on the job.”

 

The Luthor just pulled a tongue at the other girl and went back to burying her head in her arms.

 

“Aww, leave her alone, Maggie,” she heard Kara say. “She’s tired.”

 

“That’s favouritism.” The shorter girl’s tone was playfully accusatory. “You guys never let  _ me  _ sleep.”

 

“Hey!  _ I  _ let you sleep!”

 

Lena could practically  _ hear _ Maggie shrug in response.

 

“Whatever, Little Danvers. Now,” she slapped both her hands down on the table, causing Lena to shoot upright in shock, “I’ve got work to do.” The shorter girl grinned at the Luthor’s mildly dazed and confused expression before focusing back on Kara. “And if you draw on my notes again I’m holding Lena responsible.”

 

“Mmh.” Lena held up a sleepy thumbs-up and rubbed her eyes.

 

“What?! Maggie, that’s not-”

 

“Oh, look at this! I’ve got my headphones in and I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

 

“You haven’t even got them out of your pocket yet.”

 

“Such wonderful music!”

 

“Maggie-”

 

“It’s almost as if the band is in the room!”

 

Kara flicked a miscellaneous bit of something off the table at Maggie as the girl finally put her headphones on.

 

“I won’t draw on her work,” the blonde promised Lena. 

 

The Luthor nodded. 

 

“Okay.”

 

They were silent for a moment, Kara twiddling her thumbs and Lena almost nodding off. Before she could do that, however, the blonde spoke.

 

“Soooo…. You excited for tomorrow?”

 

“Mmh.”

 

“What film do you think we should see?”

 

“Nmhm.”

 

“I’ve got a few ideas in mind but I’ll need to run them by everyone else first because, see, Alex and Maggie and James and Lucy all like action films, and I like them too? But I think they’re just getting a bit too big, you know what I mean?” 

 

She glanced over to Lena, who snapped her eyelids open and nodded, hoping that she looked alert and like she was paying attention properly. Content that her friend was listening, Kara carried on, gesturing to emphasise what she was saying. It registered somewhere in the Luthor’s mind just how adorable Kara was as she flitted between fiddling with her glasses and talking with her hands. She was never still, and Lena found it rather endearing, especially when Kara would say something that she was apparently unsure of and would tilt her head down slightly, grabbing the frame of her eyewear and looking up at the Luthor through the stray hairs that fell from her ponytail to frame her face. Her eyes sparkled as she talked about her friends and their likes and dislikes and how she wanted to please everybody but them dimmed slightly as she told Lena how hard that was to do sometimes because they were an eclectic sort of group with conflicting tastes and ‘we can’t even see a Disney film with everyone because Mon-El doesn’t like it and, I mean, who doesn’t like Disney? It’s  _ Disney! _ ’. 

 

Lena liked Disney. At least, she was pretty sure she did; living with the Luthors hadn’t given her many opportunities to watch films but she seemed to recall seeing  _ Sleeping Beauty  _ at one point before she was adopted.

 

“- so that just leaves you,” Kara was saying. “Any preferences?” She beamed at the Luthor expectantly.

 

Lena snapped her eyes away from the blonde’s lips, where they had apparently chosen to rest whilst she was momentarily lost in her thoughts.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You know, action? Romance? Thriller? What do you like?”

 

“Uh…” That was a difficult question to answer for someone who hadn’t seen a film in months. “Not romance?” She ended up saying; she didn’t like those sorts of books so it stood to reason that she wouldn't like the films

 

“So you’re fine with everything else?”

 

The Luthor shrugged.

 

“I suppose.”

 

Kara clapped her hands together.

 

“Great!”

 

“Mhn.”

 

The blonde’s smile fell slightly from her face, replaced by a look of concern as she peered at the Luthor.

 

“Lena, are you alright?”

 

“Mmhmm.” 

 

The noise was accompanied by a slight nod.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Ye.”

 

Lena’s eyelids were slipping closed so she fought to keep them open.

 

“You can go to sleep if you want,” Kara said softly. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I’ll just bother Maggie.”

 

The Luthor had almost forgotten about the other girl and glanced over to find her furiously scribbling away, bobbing her head to whatever she was listening to.

 

Sitting up straight, Lena rubbed her eyes and tried to look awake.

 

“I’m fine, Kara.” She paused. “Thank you, though.”

 

“If you think I’m going to let the others cover you in food, I won’t,” the blonde said hastily.

 

“That… hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

 

There was a period of silence in which Lena’s eyelids began to feel like lead again. 

 

“You  _ really  _ need sleep, Lena.” 

 

Kara’s eyes were full of concern and the Luthor knew she was probably right; if she didn't sleep now, she’d likely drop off in a later lesson and that didn’t sound like a good plan.

 

Still though, it felt weird just to go to sleep in the common room.

 

She opened her mouth to reply to the blonde but then Maggie slammed her pen down on the table, yanked her headphones out of her ears and slid down a bit in her chair.

 

“Done!” she announced, throwing her arms into the air and stretching. “See how quickly I did that without you poking me every three seconds?”

 

“Pffft.” Kara was indignant. “I’m not  _ that  _ bad.”

 

“Oh really?!”

 

They began to bicker back and forth and Lena allowed herself a moment to just lay back on the seat for a little while.

 

*****

 

When she woke up, it was nearly lunchtime.

 

She was confused for a moment as to where she was but soon became aware of hushed voices and a hand that was threading through her ponytail and, quite suddenly, she realised her head was in Kara Danvers’ lap.

 

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, considering how tired she still was, Lena did  _ not  _ jump up as fast as lighting because, realising where your head is is quite different from  _ comprehending  _ where your head is. So, instead of leaping upwards faster than the speed of light, the Luthor sort of just sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. When she refocused and registered the discomfort of sleeping with contact lenses in, she met Kara’s eyes and smiled.

 

“Hi.”

 

“Hey,” the blonde whispered back softly. “Feel any better?”

 

“Mmnhnm.”

 

She stretched her hands over her head.

 

“What time is it?”

 

She was becoming more and more awake by the second.

 

“Five past twelve,” Maggie supplied, tossing her phone onto the table so Lena could see the time for herself.

 

“Mmhf, I need to go get some lunch.” 

 

She rubbed at her eyes again. Fuck, she needed to take these lenses out.

 

“I’ll come with you,” Kara announced, grabbing her bag. “I want to get some cookies.” She grinned as if the thought of acquiring cookies was the best idea she’d had all day.

 

Lena just nodded.

 

“Okay.”

 

She located her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she stood up, rooting around in it to make sure she had her glasses case with her whilst Mon-El, who had apparently shown up whilst she was asleep, was asking the blonde if she could get some cookies for him as well; there was no way she’d bother with putting more lenses in today. Thankfully, she’d remembered to put the case in her bag this morning, else she’d be wandering around partially blind for the rest of the day.

 

Kara seemed a bit surprised by the detour to the toilets, almost falling down the stairs as she turned around to follow the other girl and Lena supposed she could have said something to the blonde like ‘hey, I’m going in here for a minute, hang on’ but the cute look of confusion on the girl’s face made her slightly glad that she didn’t, even if she felt a little mean for it.

 

One the lenses were out of her eyes, Lena felt a lot better. She pulled her glasses out of their case and pushed them up her nose then turned to Kara only to find the girl staring at her with a mild blush in her cheeks.

 

“What?” she asked.

 

“What? Nothing, pfft, I just, ahem,” a hand jumped up to fiddle with her own eyewear. “I- I like your glasses. They look pretty on you.” She punctuated the statement with a shy smile.

 

The Luthor’s hand found it’s way to the corner of her glasses and she turned to face herself in the mirror. She’d never considered that she looked good in her glasses; Lillian always insisted that she wore contact lenses and Lena had always assumed it was because her mother thought her eyewear ugly. “Thanks,” she said quietly.

 

They were silent for a moment, both looking at the youngest Luthor in the mirror.

 

“Lunch!” Kara said suddenly. “Cookies! I,” she pointed to the door, “need to get-  _ you  _ need to get some lunch.”

 

“Right,” Lena nodded. “Lunch.”

 

*****

 

Ten minutes later and the pair were stumbling out of the Pound Bakery, their arms laden with cookies as Kara attempted to jam her purse back into her bag.

 

“Kara, twenty cookies is way too many,” Lena was saying, almost dropping the baguette she’d picked up for lunch as she struggled to hold all the packets of cookies that the blonde had thrust into her arms.

 

“You can nefer haf too many cookies,” she replied around the receipt in her mouth. 

 

“You’ll be sick if you eat this many.”

 

The blonde paused in her actions and adopted a look of confusion.

 

“Zey’re not all for me.”

 

She spat the receipt out and shoved it onto her bag along with her purse.

 

“Okay, I know you got some for Mon-El but-”

 

“No, they’re for everyone.”

 

She took the cookies from Lena so as to stop the other girl from struggling so much.

 

“There’s eight of us so that’s two each plus four left over for Eliza and Jeremiah.”

 

Lena blinked.

 

“Fair enough.”

 

“Come on then,” the other girl said cheerfully, linking her arm with the Luthor’s as they made their way back to college.

 

The rest of lunch passed by in a bit of blur for Lena; she and Kara got back to the common room and distributed the cookies. Everyone complimented the Luthor on her glasses, making her grin like a bit of an idiot, and then said eyewear got passed around the table so everyone could try them on. James took pictures which were then put on the group chat for all to see along with some other rather unflattering images of Lucy when she’d tried to get the whole end of her subway in her mouth at once and failed horribly.

 

She almost fell asleep again towards the end of lunch but then someone else in the common room had started blasting music from somewhere which was loud enough to raise the dead so she didn’t. She didn’t mind, though; being awake meant she got to watch Kara talk as she listened to her stories.

  
Falling asleep later in business studies was totally worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was chapter 11. For some reason, I found this one really easy to write; no idea why. Probably because I wasn't drunk and/or overtired.
> 
> You all know what I'm going to say now but I'll say it anyway; comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and it'd be great if you guys pointed out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot.
> 
> You can come talk to me here
> 
>  https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> if you like. I'm always up for a chat if I'm online.
> 
> Aaaaand that's about all I have to say now.
> 
> See you in three days,
> 
> Three


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, once again 'tis I with another chapter.

Come Friday morning, Lena was  _ nearly  _ caught up on sleep. ‘Nearly’, in this case, of course, meaning ‘not at all but fuck it’. See, the Luthor had  _ tried  _ to go to bed early but she’d had homework to do and some notes to write up and she may or may not have read  _ Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them _ ,  _ Quidditch Through the Ages  _ and  _ The Tales of Beedle the Bard _ … yeah. It wasn’t  _ her  _ fault that J.K. Rowling was actually the goddess of writing, stories and magic.

 

At least she didn't feel as tired as she had the day before; it’d probably catch up to her later which was why she’d decided to skip contacts today and jump straight to wearing glasses but, for now, she was functioning like a normal human being. The two cups of coffee she drank before leaving the house also probably helped; caffeine was one hell of a drug and could do marvelous things.

 

The walk to the bus stop was also not completely terrible; there was no wind and very little rain. The temperature was probably hovering around the zero mark but, hey, you can’t have everything.

 

When Lena was almost at the stop, however, she noticed something a little different from usual; the Danvers’ car was parked a few metres forward of where the bus stopped to pick everyone up.

 

Confused, the Luthor approached the car, slipping inside it as the back door was flung open for her.

 

“Morning!” Kara greeted her before she’d even shut the door.

 

“Hi,” she replied distractedly. “Did you wait for me?”

 

“Of course we did, sweetheart.”

 

The Luthor flicked her gaze over to meet Eliza’s in the rearview mirror.

 

“We can’t have you standing in the cold all morning,” she elaborated.

 

“I -” Lena was lost for words. She gaped for a bit, mouth opening and closing like a fish. The Luthor wasn’t used to this sort of treatment in any way shape or form; no one had ever really… well, why would they? “Thank you,” she eventually managed to choke out through the shock. “I - thank you.”

 

She felt hand slip into her own and looked down to find Kara’s there. She looked up at the blonde who flashed a smile at her.

 

“What are friends for?” she asked, giving Lena’s hand a little squeeze as she did so, causing a blush to rise in the Luthor’s cheeks.

 

Lena just gaped a bit more.

 

*****

 

Kara didn’t let go of her hand for the rest of the journey and, as a result, the colour in Lena’s cheeks never really completely dissipated. It was nice. Probably a little too nice because, when they reached college and had to separate, the Luthor found herself missing the contact and the warmth it brought, both physically and emotionally. She chalked it up to being so touch-starved all her life although she didn’t know why this desire for physical contact was rearing it’s head  _ now. _

 

Thankfully though, the situation was almost immediately rectified when they reached the common room, the blonde squishing herself onto the bench next to Lena despite the fact that there really wasn’t the room. This left the Luthor pressed incredibly close to Lucy but it also meant that Kara was practically sat in her lap. Lena’s poor heart skipped so many beats that it almost stopped and her blush returned in full force when the blonde’s hand accidentally fell onto her thigh.

 

“Hi,” Lucy had said, awkwardly attempting to wave from between the dark haired girl and the mass of pure muscle that was James. “My elbow’s not hurting you there, is it?”

 

Lena shook her head.

 

“It’s fine.”

 

The smaller girl leaned back in her seat.

 

“I can’t wait for half term,” she sighed. “I’m going to sleep for three days then eat my weight in pizza.”

 

“So not very much then?”

 

James elbowed her in the ribs playfully, grinning like an idiot.

 

“Fuck off, James.” Her tone matched his.

 

“You love me really.”

 

“Pffft, you wish.”

 

“Anyone had any ideas on what we can see tonight?” Kara interjected, leaning over the Luthor so as to be better heard by the pair who were bickering. Her hand ended up on Lena’s thigh again. The poor girl almost died.

 

“A film.”

 

Lena snorted.

 

“Very helpful, Lucy,” Alex shot across the table. 

 

The shorter girl smiled.

 

“I try.”

 

Alex threw a mini pretzel at her.

 

“Hey!!” Kara protested. “Those are mine.”

 

The elder Danvers grinned and threw a pretzel at her sister.

 

*****

 

Lena didn't know if it was her excitement for the evening ahead or her current state of only-half-awake that caused her morning lessons to drag on for what might as well have been an eternity. No one was doing any work, not even the teachers who just shoved on some videos and left them to it; in physics they were treated to a BBC documentary that was  _ at least  _ ten years old and in business studies they were forced to sit through ancient episodes of ‘The Apprentice’. Really, there was no point in the Luthor even being there.

 

And so it was that Lena got an extra two hours of sleep, feeling  _ very  _ happy that she’d forgone contact lenses that morning. After all, she didn’t exactly have anything better to do. By the time second lesson decided to be over, she was almost back to normal, something she considered to be an achievement.

 

In contrast, lunch seened to be over far too quickly. Apparently ‘time flies when you’re having fun’  _ actually _ applied to social situations and not just late-night binge-reading sessions as the Luthor had previously thought. She was sat next to Kara again although they weren’t on the bench this time, instead occupying some of the chairs although that didn’t stop the blonde from shuffling rather close to the other girl. Lucy and Maggie got into a mini-fight about who had the best taste in music and Mon-El spent the whole time complaining about how he now had three hours free with nothing to do, dismissing Kara’s suggestion of doing some homework.

 

“Well, why don’t you find something else to do then?” Winn had asked.

 

“How ‘bout I find some _ one  _ else to do?” Mon-El looked around the table and wiggled his eyebrows. “Huh?”

 

Lena had snorted at that.

 

“Oh please,” she’d said. “The only people who’d go anywhere near you in the bedroom would need to drop their standards lower than they’d have to drop their knickers.”

 

Needless to say, Mon-El had not been pleased but everyone else seemed to be amused.

 

She had computer science with Winn after lunch in which they basically just dicked about on the computers and in photoshop because their teacher just showed up, told them to log in and then promptly vanished from the room for the rest of the lesson. No one dared leave the class for fear of the teacher reappearing but, as it turned out, they needn’t have stayed. Still, Lena had fun; she couldn’t remember the last time she just played about with technology.

 

The next period she had was a free one, as was Winn’s, so they made their way up to the common room together to meet with Maggie, Kara and Mon-El, who was still sulking a little from Lena’s comment at lunch, something the Luthor found hilarious.

 

The five spent the hour debating what film they would see as it  _ still  _ hadn’t been decided and then, once they’d narrowed it down to three, they moved on to wondering where’ they’d eat. Kara was up for anything, Winn suggested the Burger King next to the cinema which Maggie seconded because it cut down on walking and was actually, amazingly, not disgusting but Mon-El decided to be problematic and say they should go to the McDonalds on the other side of town for reasons unknown. Lena had no real opinion on the matter, having never been to a fast food place in her life and so she excused herself from the debate when they turned to her for input.

 

However, hearing that the Luthor had never been to any of the suggested places, Kara declared it her mission to take her to each and every one. Apparently Lena was going to be eating a lot of fast food in the future. Maggie just sniggered at them under her breath and Lena was almost positive that she heard a muttered ‘gay’ but ignored it.

 

Last lesson was torture for the Luthor; the teacher was one of those who try to be ‘hip’ and ‘down with the kids’ and, as a result, the class was full to the brim with ‘banter’. But it  _ did  _ end twenty minutes earlier than timetabled so it wasn’t all bad. She used the extra twenty minutes to quickly finish up some notes in the RC so she wouldn’t have to do any tonight before making her way over to the common room building and then finally,  _ finally _ , it was half term.

 

She was stood there for five minutes before Kara showed up, followed shortly be everyone else.

 

“Hi!” The blonde slipped her arm into Lena’s and smiled beautifully.

 

“Hey.”

 

“You excited?”

 

Lena shrugged.

 

“A little.”

 

“ _ I’m _ excited!” The blonde was practically bouncing on the spot. “It’s going to be so much fun! We haven’t done this in  _ ages _ !”

 

“Kara, we did this three weeks ago,” Lucy pointed out, looping her arm around Kara’s free one.

 

“Exactly!”

 

The shorter girl rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner at Lena who just snorted.

 

“Come on, you weirdos.”

 

Alex began to walk away from the group, shaking her head.

 

“You can be excited in the caffe.”

 

Kara’s face lit up.

 

“I’m getting some chocolate fudge cake.”

 

And then she was off, pulling Lena and Lucy with her. Lucy made a panicked face and almost fell over at the sudden movement but managed to right herself in time to avoid face-planting the floor. Lena could hear the others laughing behind them and she grinned.

  
The rest of the day looked like it was going to be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo!! That was that. I hope you all enjoyed it.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated and feedback is welcome but you're all fired from pointing out mistakes in my writing because I've just noticed one in the description of this thing and I can't trust any of you anymore.
> 
> No, really though, I love you all; you've been so supportive and I couldn't be happier that you're all loving this little thing so much.
> 
> If you have the desire to come and scream at me or, god knows why, talk to me, you can find me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> So I'll see you in three days where the gang will actually go to the cinema.
> 
> Until then,
> 
> Three


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm fucking shattered, hope you enjoy this.

True to her word, Kara  _ did _ , indeed, get herself some chocolate fudge cake along with a large hot chocolate. Both of these treats were covered in whipped cream, mini choc-chips and, in the case of the hot chocolate, marshmallows. The Luthor didn’t know whether they looked deliciously appealing or disgustingly sweet. Either way, Kara looked positively gleeful when she brought her food back to the table and sat down next to Lena. 

 

Because they were such a large group, they’d had to push two tables together and commandeer some extra chairs so that they’d all be able to sit with one another. Unfortunately, the tables were tiny and only meant to sit two or three people so trying to fit eight of them around two ended up with everyone feeling a bit squished, but they didn’t mind.

 

“Isn’t this nice?” the blonde asked once they were all settled, scooping up a spoonful of whipped cream and sticking it in her mouth.

 

“Hmm,” agreed Alex through a mouthful of coffee. “Shame Vasquez isn’t here.”

 

“Yeah,” Kara pouted. 

 

Maggie grinned.

 

“Let’s send her pictures to make her jealous.”

 

“Maggie! That’s mean!”

 

Lena leant over to Lucy, who was sat on her right.

 

“Who’s Vasquez?”

 

“She’s on holiday,” came the reply. “You’ll meet her after half term. Alex brought her to sit with us at lunch one day and we adopted her.” She ruffled the Luthor’s hair and grinned. “Like we adopted you.” She used her spoon to nab some of the cream off Lena’s drink. “You’ll like her; she’s fun.”

 

“I’ll take your word for it.”

 

“Hey, Lena?” 

 

The Luthor jumped at the sudden feeling of a hand on her knee and turned to find Kara withdrawing it sheepishly.

 

“Sorry,” she said, fiddling with her glasses again. “I forgot I was supposed to warn you when-”

 

“Kara, it’s fine,” Lena reassured her. “Really.”

 

“Okay,” she whispered, turning away whilst Lucy muttered ‘puppy’ under her breath only to have to turn right back to face Lena again, having apparently remembered why she’d wanted to grab the other girl’s attention. “Oh, did you want to try some chocolate fudge cake?”

 

“I -” She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah! It’s delicious!” The blonde’s smile was all the confirmation Lena needed.

 

“Okay then.”

 

“It’s  _ so  _ good,” Kara gushed as she set about loading a spoon full of cake, sprinkles and cream. “And it’s warm! I think I’d eat this every day if I could.” 

 

She held up the spoon proudly and offered it out to the Luthor who, for a very brief moment, thought the blonde might try to feed her but she very quickly dismissed that thought and, instead, carefully took the utensil by the piece of the handle she could reach so as not to drop it.

 

As soon as the dessert entered her mouth, Lena melted. Kara was right; it was amazing and she’d probably kill a man for the recipe.

 

“That’s gorgeous,” she whispered.

 

“I know,” the blonde whispered back. “I have it every time we come here.”

 

“Yeah,” chipped in Winn, “and you  _ never  _ share.”

 

“That’s because it’s  _ mine _ .”

 

James pointed to Lena, who was still holding Kara’s spoon in her hand, and raised an eyebrow.

 

Kara, for her part, blushed bright red and began immediately to fiddle with her glasses.

 

“Lena’s new,” she mumbled. “I -”

 

“I was new, once,” Maggie sighed wistfully over the table. “But, alas, I was never allowed to come between Kara Danvers and her fudge cake.”

 

“Nor was Vasquez,” Alex pointed out. 

 

“Or Mon-El.”

 

“Or Barry that one time he came with us.”

 

“I think Little Danvers is more whipped than the cream on her plate.”

 

“Maggie!”

 

*****

 

By the time they left the cafe, both Kara  _ and  _ Lena had been teased mercilessly and the blonde was still a blushing stuttering mess when she linked her arm with the other girl’s to head off to their next destination; the place that Alex had affectionately dubbed ‘the nerd shop’.

 

After ten minutes of browsing through comic books and merchandise and after Maggie convinced Alex to buy herself a pokemon snapback, the group traipsed around town for a bit until they got bored. During this time, they almost had to physically drag Lena away from Waterstones before she bought ten new books. The only reason they managed to avoid doing this was because the Luthor decided she’d order them online instead.

 

It didn’t take them long after that to get to the cinema where they got their tickets to their film (they decided to go and see an action one in the end) and then they trekked back out to go to the arcade because the film didn’t start until later.

 

“Fancy a game of pool, Luthor?” Maggie asked, offering the dark haired girl a cue. “Loser buys the winner whatever they want from the cinema?”

 

Lena shrugged.

 

“Why not?”

 

She took the offered stick and fished around in her bag for her purse so they could actually play.

 

“I’d say good luck,” Alex told her, “but Maggie’s shit so you’ll probably win.”

 

As it turned out, they were both shit; Maggie failed to break, Lena seemed to have a talent for knocking the cue ball directly into a pocket without hitting anything else along the way and both of them were just atrocious at aiming.

 

“I’m a lesbian!” was Maggie’s defence. “We’re not good with balls.”

 

“No we are not,” Lena agreed under her breath as she, once again, watched the cue ball sail magnificently across the table and into a pocket.  She wasn’t sure if anyone heard her or not.

 

In the end, Maggie lost by potting the black ball before she should have.

 

“ _ That _ was the most painful thing I have ever seen in my life,” James told them. “And I’ve seen

_ Winn  _ play pool.”

 

“Hey!” the other boy protested. “I’m not  _ that  _ bad.”

 

“Winn, you broke a light.”

 

“Anyone could have done that!”

 

“The lights are on the ceiling!!!!”

 

*****

 

They decided to eat before they actually saw the film, Alex pointing out that Kara would just eat her own body weight in sweets if they didn’t and so it was that they ended up in Burger King with a mildly-sulky Mon-El whom they proceeded to ignore whenever he mentioned McDonald's.

 

He perked up after he got his food, though, blaming his earlier mood on hunger. Kara seemed to buy it and everyone else just rolled their eyes. Lena was tempted to say something but didn’t think it was her place; she  _ was _ new to the group, after all.

 

Lucy decided they were sitting right at the back of the theatre the moment they re-entered the cinema.

 

“It’s literally the best place to sit,” she was telling Lena. “And you need to ask Maggs to buy you the biggest bucket of popcorn they sell so I can sit next to you and we can share it.”

 

Lena did exactly that.

 

Unfortunately though, they couldn’t sit where Lucy wanted because another group had already parked themselves there. Still, Lena ended up between Kara and Lucy so she was happy.

 

“This is going to be so good!”

 

Kara was actually bouncing in her seat.

 

“You think?” Lean asked, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

 

“Yeah! I was looking at the reviews of it last night and it’ supposed to be awesome.”

 

“Indeed?”

 

“Mmhmm.” 

 

The blonde stole a handful of Lena’s popcorn.

 

“And the other ones in this series are  _ really  _ good so -”

 

“Wait, what?” The Luthor was confused. “This is part of a series?”

 

“Uhm, yeah,” Kara said, as if it were obvious. “Haven’t you seen the other ones?”

 

A small crinkle appeared on her forehead, Lena found it adorable.

 

“No.”

 

Blue eyes widened further than the Luthor thought possible as the blonde slowly closed her hands around the other girl’s arm.

 

“You’re going to come over to mine and we’re going to watch them all,” she whispered.

 

“Planning a date there, Kara?” Lucy interjected, flicking a bit of popcorn at the taller girl.

 

“Shut up, Lucy.”

 

*****

 

All through the film, Kara remained thrilled, excitedly grabbing at the Luthor’s arm whenever something cool happened and, at one point, she hid in the other girl’s shoulder during a slightly more graphic scene.

 

Halfway through the movie, however, Lena felt someone who was definitely  _ not  _ Kara playing idly with her hair. Using her incredible deductive powers, she soon figured out that it was Mon-El; he’d draped his arm over the back of Kara’s seat in what was obviously an attempt to put his arm around her. He probably though he was playing with the blonde’s hair.

 

Slowly, the Luthor reached up to where she could feel his hand was. 

 

She grabbed it.

 

And them promptly proceeded to bend his fingers backwards.

 

The hand retracted very quickly and she saw him nursing it out of the corner of her eye and smiled to herself. She knew it was petty but still. 

 

_ That’s for being an ass about dinner,  _ she thought.

 

*****

 

Towards the end of the film, and during a particularly emotional scene, Lena felt the blonde’s hand slip into her own and then, almost immediately, felt her face heat up. The Luthor was glad that the cinema was so dark.

 

She looked over at Kara to find the other girl staring at the screen with tears in her eyes.

 

“Are you alright?” she whispered.

 

Kara only nodded.

 

A few moments later, though, and the blonde was curled into Lena’s chest, tears falling from her eyes. The Luthor had an arm around the other girl and was slowly rubbing soothing circles into her back, her other hand being held in a vice-grip by both of Kara’s and her heart beating at a million miles an hour.

 

She looked to Lucy at one point only to see that the girl was in a similar state to Kara although she hadn’t taken to sobbing into someone’s shoulder… yet.

 

“It’s just so sad,” Kara whispered at one point.

 

Lena just ‘hmm’ed in agreement, not particularly understanding fully what was going on.

 

*****

 

Kara was still leaning on Lena and holding her hand after the post credits scene and Lena was still blushing like an idiot.

 

“Is she asleep?” Alex asked, pointing at the blonde.

 

“No,” Kara spoke up. “Just sad.”

 

The redhead rolled her eyes.

 

“Come on,” she said, shaking her sister’s shoulder. “Dad’s here to pick us up.”

 

“Okay.”

 

The blonde stood up, pulling Lena with her. Alex’s eyes flicked down to their joined hands but she didn’t say anything.

 

“You coming home with us, Luthor?”

 

“I was going to get the bus.”

 

“No, she’s coming with us,” Kara decided. “Jeremiah won’t mind.”

 

“Are you -”

 

“Yes, Lena, we’re sure.”

 

“I - okay then.”

 

“Good.”

 

Alex shooed them out of the isle.

 

“Now move, I want to go home.”

 

*****

 

Jeremiah, as Kara had said, didn’t mind taking Lena home at all but he  _ did  _ mind dropping her off at the bus stop instead of taking her all the way up to her house.

 

“Really,” the Luthor insisted, “it’s fine; I can walk from here.”

 

“Are you certain you’ll be safe?” 

 

“Yes, sir; perfectly safe.”

 

“If you’re sure.” He didn’t look happy. 

 

“I’m sure.”

 

Lena exited the car and said her goodbyes and then began the walk home, enjoying the cool air on her face for a moment before realising that it was cold, not cool, and shivering.

 

She got home five minutes later.

 

“You’re home late.”

 

Lena froze in her tracks and whirled around to face her mother.

 

“I was out.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

Lillian’s expression was mostly unreadable but she eyes Lena with a mixture of suspicion and dislike.

 

“Don’t do it again.”

 

“Yes, mother.”

 

It was the easiest way to avoid an argument.

 

Lena turned on her heel and walked upstairs, ignoring the feeling of her mother’s eyes boring into the back of her head.

 

She flopped face first onto her bed and sighed deeply into a pillow, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she did so.

 

There was one unread text. 

 

It was from Lex.

 

Lena quickly shot upwards into a sitting position.

 

_ Go to sleep early, _ the message said.  _ I’m picking you up at eight. We’re going out. Dress for the city. _

 

Lena grinned.

  
Half term was off to a  _ brilliant  _ start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's that! Chapter 13 done! You can look forward to Lex being in the next chapter for those who were asking what the relationship is like between the Luthor siblings.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and can you please be a wonderful group of absolute darlings and point out if I've missed any spelling and grammar issues.
> 
> You can find me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> if you want to talk to me.
> 
> See you in three days,
> 
> Three


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Three's uploading a chapter at a reasonable time? What are the odds?! I'm just as shocked as you.

 

Surprisingly enough, Lena  _ actually  _ managed to fall asleep at what one would consider a reasonable time. She did, however, also wake up at 6:30, something that most people would shudder at doing on a weekday, let alone on a Saturday.

 

But Lena was exited; she hadn’t seen her brother in  _ ages _ , since she started college  _ at least _ . Lex had been busy with the overseas branches of their father’s company which meant that he wasn’t able to quickly stop off and see his sister as often as either of them would have liked. Lena, personally, thought that it was Lillian’s way of trying to keep them apart and that Lionel either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Either way, the head of the Luthor household was sending his son on what appeared to be a round-the-world tour of the company labs and offices.

 

The last time Lex had been home, he’d brought back souvenirs from every city he’d visited for his little sister. There were magnets, keyrings, stickers, t-shirts - the list went on. Lena loved each and every one of them; she kept the magnets in a box because Lillian wouldn’t allow them on the fridge and there was nowhere else that the youngest Luthor could think to put them and every keyring she’d ever been given had all been linked together in a huge bundle of tackiness that she kept her house keys on and took with her everywhere.

 

Lena fished these keys out of her college bag after she came out of the shower, throwing them instead into the rucksack that she’d be taking with her today along with her phone, a brush, her sunglasses, her purse and whatever else she deemed necessary.

 

She quickly threw on some black skinny jeans and a cream tank top before hunting around her room for a flannel that would go with them, finding an old belt that she’d forgotten about in the process and looping it around her waist; it was faux-leather with a huge skull on it and, in her own completely professional opinion, was one of the best things she’d ever bought. Eventually, she located a suitable shirt; a black and white flannel. 

 

Jewelery was next and Lena reveled in the feeling of finally being able to wear all of her earrings again. Lillian was very disapproving of her daughter’s many piercings that had been acquired during the midnight escapes from boarding school from a rather shady but talented tattoo artist. As such, the youngest Luthor had been banned from wearing them to college and, at this point, it was easier to just go with it instead of disobeying; the last time she’d tried that hadn’t been pretty and she was in no rush to experience a repeat of it.

 

*****

 

Lex texted her that he was outside just as she was putting the finishing touches to her makeup.

 

Lena practically squeed and rushed to pull on her Doc Martins and leather jacket, both red, before grabbing her bag, a beanie and a nose ring and rushing downstairs and out of the house.

 

She was pulled into a hug before she could say anything to her older brother.

 

“You look ridiculous.”

 

Lena playfully punched her sibling in the stomach.

 

“Have you seen yourself?”

 

Lex laughed. He pulled off her beanie and ruffled her hair, laughing harder as she pouted at him and attempted to fix the damage he’s done.

 

“I’d do the same to you,” she remarked, pulling the hat back down. “But that’s obviously out of the question.”

 

Lex ran a hand over his shaved head and lightly shoved her with the other one.

 

“Shut up and get in the car,” he told her. “Mum and Dad don’t know I’m here and it’s going to stay that way until tonight.”

 

“Why?”

 

Lena pulled open the passenger side door and slipped into the Mercedes.

 

“Am I not allowed to just want to spend time with my baby sister without them breathing down my neck and asking how the company is doing even though they know full well that it’s doing fine?”

 

He smiled across at her, turning the key in the ignition and heading off back down the driveway.

 

“I haven’t seen you in ages, I’ve missed you.”

 

“Dope,” Lena smiled. “I’ve missed you, too.”

 

“That reminds me, there’s something for you in the glove compartment.”

 

The younger Luthor gasped as her face lit up and opened the space, reaching in and pulling out a little black gift bag, a Spice Girls CD and a phone.

 

“Oh my god, you have terrible music taste.”

 

Lex’s ears went pink.

 

“Like yours is any better.”

 

“Yes but the  _ Spice Girls _ ?”

 

“Shut up and put it back. And the phone; it’s my work one.”

 

Lena did as she was bade and then opened the little bag. She tipped it into her lap.

 

“Lex, what the fuck?”

 

There were rainbow badges and pom poms and pencils and rubbers and all manner of other multi-hued objects now scattered over Lena and the space around her.

 

“It’s because you’re gay.”

 

“I’d gathered that, yes, thank you.”

 

*****

 

After Lena had managed to get everything back in the bag, Lex had reached down the side of his own seat and pulled out another gift bag. This one contained a few keyrings, which Lena attached to the ones she already had with her immediately, a magnet and a tiny little ornament.

 

“Thank you,” she said to him, carefully replacing the objects and clutching the bag in her hands.

 

“Only the best for my little sis.”

 

“Lex, there was a sticker on one that said it cost 50p.”

 

“Let’s put some music on!”

 

Lena rolled her eyes and located her brother’s ipod. 

 

“I’m guessing it’s already connected?”

 

“Yeah, just press play.”

 

Lena lit the screen up.

 

“No, we are  _ not  _ listening to Taylor Swift.”

 

Lex pouted. He tried to send puppydog eyes in her general direction whilst also not taking his attention off the road.

 

“Paramore or Halestorm?” she asked.

 

“You’re no fun. Halestorm.”

 

“I’m actually plenty of fun, thank you.”

 

Lena tapped the screen a few times and the gorgeous sound of guitars met her ears. She leant back and sighed, breathing in the scent of leather and enjoying how comfy the seats were.

 

“So, how’s school?” Lex said after a while.

 

“It’s college now, remember?”

 

“Whatever.” He nudged her. “How’s that?”

 

Lena shrugged. She was going to say ‘shit’ but then she thought about Kara and her smile and her gorgeous blue eyes and their friends and how nice they were.

 

“It’s good,” she ended up saying quietly.

 

“Made any friends yet?”

 

“A few.”

 

“They’re not like the ones back in -”

 

“No,” she cut him off. “God, no. Thank goodness.”

 

“Good, because I’m not having you getting kicked out of anywhere else.”

 

“I  _ think  _ I’ve learnt my lesson on that one.” 

 

She smiled at him but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

 

They were silent for a moment.

 

“Is Mum still giving you shit for that?”

 

Lena sighed, blowing loose bits of her fringe out of her face.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Do you want me to talk to her again?”

 

Lex’s voice was soft and caring.

 

Lena waved him off.

 

“I’ll be fine.”

 

“If you’re sure.”

 

*****

 

Through the rest of the car journey, they talked about anything and everything; how Lena’s classes were, how boring most of the company work was and how Lex had had some amazing idea that he wouldn’t tell Lena about just yet but would need her help for once he’d irond out most of the details. They talked about the new planets that had been found and Lena’s new friends and Lex was pleased that they all seemed nice.

 

The forty minutes it took for them to reach the city seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, Lex parking the car in the Luthor-Corp company grounds to save driving around looking for a safe place to leave the vehicle where it wouldn’t get damaged or stolen once they’d arrived.

 

“So,” the elder Luthor said, switching the engine off and pulling the key out. “Where to?”

 

“Book shop.”

 

Lex shook his head.

 

“Why did I ask?”

 

*****

 

They spent half an hour in the bookshop before Lex got bored and dragged his sister away from the literature. The younger Luthor made a promise to the books that she would come back for them later and, reluctantly, allowed herself to be pulled from the shop and into a cafe so her brother could get a coffee.

 

After that, they wandered around the clothes shops, picking things up here and there and making each other try on every hat they deemed unflattering. Lena ended up with two new flannels, a new beanie and some more skinny jeans which Lex insisted he buy for her. Lex, himself, acquired some new socks and a shirt.

 

The next stop on their list was the music shop where Lena wasted no time in buying herself five new albums, a new mug with the Guns ‘n’ Roses logo on it and a Disney Princess sing along CD for her brother. She regretted it the instant Lex promised to play it in the car on the way home and she knew that there was nothing she could do to stop him.

 

“Hey, you knew this would happen,” Lex defended himself.

 

“I can still just return it,” she warned him. “I have the receipt right here.”

 

*****

 

They slowed down as it approached lunchtime.

 

“Where do you want to go?” Lena asked, switching her bags from one hand to the other and flexing her fingers. She looped her now free arm through one of her brother’s.

 

“I was thinking that new Italian place by Marks & Spencer looked quite good?”

 

Lex looked at her, waiting for approval.

 

“Italian sounds amazing,” she nodded. 

 

Then she looked at her brother more closely and squinted. 

 

“What is it?”

 

“Hmm?” Lex tried to look as if he had no idea what she was on about.

 

“You may be able to fool anyone and everyone but I am your  _ sister _ ,” she warned him. “I know when you’re hiding something; now spill.”

 

The elder Luthor ran a hand over his head.

 

“Nothing gets past you, does it?” he snorted. “I may or may not have told Clark to meet us there.”

 

“Just Clark?”

 

Lena raised an eyebrow.

 

“Yes, believe it or not.”

 

“Okay then,” she shrugged. “Why not tell me? I  _ like _ Clark.”

 

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Lex mumbled. “So you’d get to see your two favourite people in one day.”

 

Lena made a show of looking her brother up and down,

 

“You?” she said. “One of my favourite people?”

 

“I can just call Clark and tell him he doesn’t have to meet us.”

 

“No, don’t do that, I haven’t seen him in months.”

 

Lex poked a tongue out at his sister.

 

“Come one then.”

 

He quickened his pace.

 

“We’ve got a lunch to get to.”

 

Lena jogged a little to keep up with her brother, grinning like crazy. Lex was right; Clark  _ was  _ one of her favourite people. He made her brother laugh and smile and not many people could do that so, if Lex liked him, then Lena did, too. She’d known him since Lex had been in university and brought Clark home for a weekend on one of the occasions she’d been home herself. 

 

That had been years ago and the other man had come to stay for quite a few weekends every year that he and Lex were in university together. He was always kind to Lena, always let her have another biscuit when she really shouldn’t and helped her construct several complicated yet harmless devices that they used to fuck with Lex. 

 

Yes, lunch with Clark sounded nice.

  
She couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah! Lex is here!
> 
> I really enjoyed writing this chapter; I love having these two just Getting Along instead of hating each other like they do at the moment in the show. Honestly, I just think Lex would be so supportive of his little baby sister and Lena would love her brother more than anyone but they're also just massive dicks to each other on occasion.
> 
> So, yeah, this one was fun to write; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and it's be brilliant if you guys could point out any spelling and grammar issues for me because I've read it through and I think I've got them all but you never know.
> 
> If you feel the need to yell at me or if you just want to talk to me, you can come find me and say hi here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> I'm always up for a bit of a chat if I'm online so don't be shy.
> 
> Well, that's all I have to say today, I think.
> 
> See you in three days,
> 
> Three


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT!!!!
> 
> Okay guys, I'm really sorry about this but Imma have to take a bit of a break from writing for a while because of college again. Apologies. 
> 
> On with the chapter.

It took them a further five minutes of walking before they turned onto the street on which their destination was located. Lena spotted Clark before Lex did and pointed the other man out to her brother. He didn’t seem to have changed a bit; he was still wearing those huge glasses and a cardigan and he still looked like he could fight Thor and win underneath all of it.

 

The reporter was stood outside the restaurant, leaning casually against the wall and looking around at the passers-by. He didn’t seen to have spotted them, still scanning the faces of the crowd as they swept past him.

 

“Clark!” Lex called out to him as they drew near.

 

The man started at the sound of the Luthor’s voice and turned his head to look for them. His eyes landed on the pair after only a few moments and he waved, his whole face lighting up. Lena waved back and grinned, Lex offering a small salute for an unknown reason but a small smile played at the corner of his lips.

 

Clark went straight in for a hug as soon as the Luthors were close enough but was stopped short by Lex’s serious face and outstretched hand. A look of confusion passed over his face as he moved the shake the other man’s hand but that soon turned into one of pleased surprise as the elder Luthor dropped the act and laughed as he pulled him into a tight embrace.

 

“It’s been too long,” Lex said, clapping a hand on his friend’s back and pulling out of the hug. “Good to see you, Clark.”

 

“And you, buddy.” The reporter grinned again. “Where did they ship you off to this time?”

 

“China.”

 

“Ah, office work or lab work?”

 

Lex shrugged.

 

“A little of both. We’re working on something we think could revolutionise modern day medicine but I can’t give you any details yet; can’t risk you letting something slip to Lois.”

 

Clark laughed.

 

“Yeah, she’d have a field day with that.”

 

He turned to Lena who had been watching the exchange with a smile of your face.

 

“And Lena!”

 

“Hi Clark.”

 

“C’mere.”

 

And the Lena was pulled into a bone-crushing hug of her own, wrapping her arms as far round the reporter as she could.

 

“How’s college?” he asked once he’d let her go. “Work still easy?”

 

“College is good,” the younger Luthor nodded. “And thank’s for remembering that’s where I go now, unlike  _ some  _ people.” She made a show of looking at her brother.

 

Lex pretended to look offended and splayed a hand over his chest.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

Clark laughed at the pair of them.

 

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go sit down; I’m starving.”

 

“You know I booked a table?” Lex asked. “You could have waited for us inside this whole time.”

 

The reported blinked at him.

 

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

 

And, with that, he steered the siblings into the restaurant, talking a mile a minute about how what he’d seen of the menu whilst he was stood outside looked looked amazing. 

 

Some things never changed.

 

*****

 

Another thing that hadn’t changed about Clark, other than the fact that he was still just as animated as ever, was the sheer amount of food he was able to consume in one sitting. In the time they were there, he ate a starter, a main course, a dessert and a coffee as well as at least a quarter of Lena’s main course because the portions were huge and she couldn't finish it.

 

Lunch was a pleasant affair; the food was delicious and the trio spent their time catching up, Clark telling them about how much he was enjoying working as a reporter and how he’d had a few decent stories in the past few weeks that his boss had been really pleased with. Lex told them both things that Lena had already heard on the drive into the city but was happy to listen to again and then it was  _ her  _ turn to complain about how dull most of her lessons were and how half the people in her classes were out of control animals.

 

She spoke of her friends, too, of course; she told the boys how nice they all were and how much fun they’d had the day before but she left out most of the details and decided against bringing up Kara for the time being; she knew she’d be teased and wanted to put it off for as long as possible.

 

Eventually, it was time to leave, Lex insisting on covering the bill.

 

“My treat,” he told them. “I feel like being nice.”

 

“Wow,” Lena remarked. “There really is a first time for everything.”

 

The elder Luthor just scoffed and shoved her into Clark.

 

*****

 

After leaving the restaurant, the three spent their afternoon wandering aimlessly around the city. They poked their heads into the museum there but the boys weren’t to interested in the exhibits and Lena had already been there too many times to count so they were outside again within the hour. The shopping centre also turned out to be incredibly dull, the siblings having bought everything they wanted for the moment and Clark just not being interested. 

 

They did stop into a little cafe for a while, however, because the reported announced that he was hungry. If it were anyone else, Lena would have questioned how on earth this was possible but, as it was Clark, she knew well enough not to; the man was a bottomless pit when it came to food. Still, it had been long enough since lunch that the younger Luthor was able to drink a small hot chocolate without feeling ill. 

 

Clark, though, got himself the biggest drink he could find as well as a slice of chocolate cake, something which reminded Lena of Kara and caused her to randomly start grinning like an idiot in the middle of the cafe. 

 

After leaving the establishment, they decided to meander down the river embankment before heading back to the Luthors’. And that’s when Lena saw it; a tiny little shop, tucked away amongst the ones selling souvenirs of the city and expensive jewelry. When she laid eyes on it, her face lit up and she turned to her brother.

 

“I’m going in there.” She nodded in the direction of the shop.

 

Lex followed her gaze. He paled slightly when he saw what she was looking at.

 

“No,” he said.

 

“What?” Clark was confused.

 

“Madam here wants another tattoo.”

 

The reporter turned to Lena.

 

“Another?”

 

“Boarding school,” she explained. “And  _ please,  _ Lex.”

 

“You have a tattoo?!?!”

 

“No! I’m  _ not  _ pretending to be your legal guardian.” The elder Luthor was adamant.

 

“Oh, but you look so much like Dad now.”

 

“ _ Lena. _ ”

 

“ _ Alexandra. _ ”

 

The pair had a silent stare off.

 

Eventually, Lex turned away.

 

“Lena,” he rubbed his eyes. “You’re not having another tattoo.”

 

“I’m still concerned that she has  _ one _ ,” Clark interjected.

 

“A piercing then?”  Lena ignored him.

 

Lex stared at her, a mild frown on his face.

 

“If I let you do this will you  _ promise _ not to get another tattoo until you’re eighteen?”

 

The younger Luthor pretended to mull it over.

 

“Fine,” she agreed at last. “I’m getting a navel piercing.”

 

She walked off towards the shop, a spring in her step and a smile on her face

 

“You little shit! You planned this, didn’t you?” Lex called after her.

 

“Maybe.”

 

*****

 

“You conniving little bitch.”

 

Lex still wasn’t happy.

 

“Hey, I didn’t  _ make _ you let me do this,” Lena had been defending herself for the last three quarters of an hour as they made their way back towards the elder Luthor’s car. “You were the one who made the deal.”

 

Lex muttered something that his sister didn’t quite catch but Clark obviously did because he had to stifle a snort. 

 

Lena simply opted to ignore the pair.

 

They soon made it to the company car park where the siblings hugged Clark goodbye and bade that he have a safe trip back to his apartment.

 

“Let’s not leave it so long between visits next time,” he suggested, holding them both tightly in the same embrace. “I miss you guys.”

 

“Yeah? We miss you too, Clark,” Lex told him. “We’ll do something more interesting next time.”

 

“I’m gonna be cheesy and say that I don’t mind what we do so long as I’m with you.”

 

Lena snorted and broke out of the hug.

 

“Ooookay, I feel like I’m third-wheeling. Shall I leave you two alone?”

 

“I meant ‘you’ as in ‘both of you’,” the reporter clarified.

 

“Aww, babe,” Lex joked. “I though we had something special.”

 

Clark shoved him in the shoulder.

 

“Shut up and get in the car, Luthor.”

 

Lex laughed but got into the car anyway. Lena gave the reporter one last hug then joined her brother, throwing his new Disney CD at him as she sat down.

 

They waved to Clark as they drove off and the rest of the journey home was spent with Lex singing along to his songs whilst Lena pretended to ignore him.

 

She ended up joining in by the time they arrived home.

 

*****

 

To say that Lillian Luthor was excited to see her son would have been an understatement; the woman was ecstatic. As soon as Lex walked in through the door she was fussing over him and asking him how he’d found the trip and ushering him into the drawing room without even sparing a glance in Lena’s direction.

 

Of course, the youngest Luthor was used to this treatment even when Lex wasn’t present so she just used the opportunity to sneak off upstairs and change into something that was a little less lesbian looking. After all, Lillian would only be comparing her to Lex over dinner so she didn’t want to give the woman another reason to criticize her.

 

It didn’t matter though; Lena may as well have not been present for the family meal. Lex had  _ tried  _ to include her but Lillian apparently forgot how to hear whenever her daughter was spoken to or speaking.

 

Eventually, Lena grew tired of the situation and left. Her brother did come to see her afterwards though; he came and sat on the end of her bed and apologised for Lillian’s behavior and offered to talk to her again. Lena declined his offer, insisting that she didn’t mind and that it didn’t bother her. Lex was sceptical of that and looked very much like he wanted to say something but kept his mouth closed.

  
They spent the rest of the night bouncing ideas for new technological improvements off each other, not going to sleep until the early hours of the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you all enjoyed that because, as I said at the top, I'm going to have to take a bit of a break because of college again. Unfortunate, I know, but necessary, I'm afraid.
> 
> So yeah, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and it' be nice if you guys could point out any errors I've made in this thing.
> 
> You can find me here if you want to yell at me
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> And I'll see you in... say, 12-15 days? Yeah, 12-15 days should be long enough. Lena gets a break so so do I.
> 
> That's about all I have to say here,
> 
> Three


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! And just as you thought this day couldn't get any better, what with Katie McGrath being confirmed for a series 3 regular.
> 
> Now, on with the story.

 

Half term seemed to fly by for Lena; what little of it she didn’t spend buried in a book, she spent with Lex in their workshop as her brother had decided to stay at the house for the rest of the week. Hours passed by in the blink of an eye as they designed and tested various gadgets and, on one occasion, a tiny little robot that could play chess. Lena wanted to call it Kasparov, after the famous chess player. Lex decided to name it Herbet because he thought it was funny.

 

In times where the pair weren’t working, Lex would be off with Lillian and Lionel, leaving the youngest Luthor alone in the house. It stung a little, when Lillian would come to fetch Lex so that the three of them could go out, not even bothering to see if Lena would like to come along as well, but she was used to it. In all honesty, she thoroughly enjoyed the time where she didn’t have to see her parents, even if that meant that she also didn’t see her brother. She knew exactly what time they’d be back thanks to Lex texting her when they were close to home, so that meant she could make use of the huge speaker system that she and Lex had rigged around the house for when Lillian and Lionel hosted parties at the place; they’d set it up so that, no matter what room you were in downstairs, you could hear the soft background music that Lillian insisted on playing. 

 

Of course, Lena didn’t use it for soft background music. No, she took full advantage of the system and blasted Green Day at full volume.

 

And she wondered why she had trouble hearing sometimes.

 

She said goodbye to Lex on the Saturday before she was due to return to college. She didn’t want him to go but, at the same time, she knew that it was inevitable and that she’d see him again fairly soon so she wasn’t  _ too  _ upset. Lillian, though, was about as emotional as Lena had ever seen her, fussing over Lex as if he was seven and trying to get him to promise to call home every week. Honestly, it was ridiculous.

 

As soon as Lex’s car was out of sight, however, Lillian’s smile dropped. She brushed past Lena on her way back inside without bothering to acknowledge her daughter’s existence. Lionel was barely any better; sparing her only a glance before turning to follow his wife, leaving Lena alone on the front steps.

 

*****

 

Waking up early again on Monday morning was not as difficult for Lena as it was for most people; she had a habit of rising early even when she didn’t need to and, as such, only had to get up half an hour earlier than she had been doing all week.

 

She left the house in silence, the darkness outside shocking her slightly and the wind whipping at her hair and pinching her nose. She was glad she’d decided to wear a scarf.

 

Still, the scarf provided little warmth during the five minutes she was stood at the bus stop; the material was thin, the accessory being designed more for looks than practicality. Needless to say that Lena was very pleased when the Danvers’ car pulled up alongside her.

 

Happiness quickly turned to shock, however, because, almost before the vehicle had stopped moving, the door had been flung open and Kara had jumped out.

 

“Lena!” she practically shouted, throwing her arms around the other girl in the warmest hug that the Luthor had ever received.

 

It actually took a few moments for Lena to process what was happening and hug back.

 

“Kara?”

 

“Where have you been?!” The blonde still hadn’t let her go. “I was worried about you.”

 

“I -”

 

“Kara, get back in the car!” Alex shouted through the passenger window. “It’s freezing!”

 

Kara cringed a little and let go of Lena. The Luthor missed the contact as soon as the blond left her arms but then she felt a hand slip into her own and she was pulled into the car, closing the door behind her.

 

“Why were you worried?” she asked, attempting to do her seatbelt up with only one hand, not being willing to let go of Kara.

 

“Oh my God!” Alex threw her hands into the air. “Don’t even - do you know what I’ve had to put up with this week? She went from ‘oh, she’s probably just busy’ to ‘Alex, I think she’s ignoring me’ and then she peaked at ‘do you think she’s died? How will we know if she’s died?’ I -” she paused to wave her arms around a bit before turning in her seat to look Lena in the eye. “Don’t you ever go missing like that again; I can’t handle it.”

 

To say that Lena was confused would be an understatement.

 

“Wha -?”

 

“She wanted me to hack into your Facebook and see if I could track your phone or your laptop so we could come and find you,” Winn interjected.”I didn’t,” he added hastily. “But, please, just come online every once in a while.”

 

“Wait.” the Luthor was still baffled. “You - you were worried about me because I wasn’t online?” She looked at Kara who had blushed bright red and sunk down in her seat as far as she could go. “Why?”

 

“I think it was more that she couldn’t get in touch with you,” Winn supplied. “She wanted to invite you to Halloween.”

 

“Hallow-? This doesn’t explain why you were so worried.”

 

“I thought you were ignoring me.” Kara’s voice was small and Lena felt a twinge of guilt. “And then I realised that you might not be? But I- you weren’t answering any of anyone’s messages on Facebook and I just- I don’t know. I thought something bad might have happened to you and then I realised I don’t have any other way to contact you and I don’t know where you live and I… I just panicked, I guess,” she finished, twirling a loose thread of her jumper between her fingers and not looking at the Luthor. “Sorry.”

 

“I -” Lena didn’t know what to say. “But… why?” was what she eventually ended up saying. It came out a lot more timid than she intended.

 

“Because we care about you.”

 

Green eyes met blue and the Luthor’s breath was stolen.

 

“You’re our friend and we… we  _ care  _ Lena. It’s what friends  _ do _ .”

 

Lena was stunned into silence and all she could do was blink at Kara. 

 

“What she said,” Winn chipped in, causing the Luthor to break her gaze away from the blonde’s to look over to the boy. He was observing them with a small smile on his face and Lena couldn’t help but smile back.

 

*****

 

By the time they reached college, Lena had received a full update on everything that had happened over the half term. This resulted in Kara blushing rather frequently as Alex and Winn recounted how she’d been acting with no way to get in touch with the Luthor. They told her about the Halloween party that the Danvers had hosted and how Alex had managed to drink three quarters of a bottle of vodka without anyone noticing before Maggie had suggested doing shots only to find that there was barely any of the Absolute left.

 

Pictures accompanied the story, many of which looked to have been taken by James because he seldom featured in them. At least half of them were of Lucy, but Lena didn’t question that as the girl seemed to be rather adept at getting herself into some rather odd situations when she was intoxicated. Krypto was another favourite; there were pictures of him on his own, pictures of him knocking Lucy over, pictures of him  _ lying  _ on Lucy, pictures of Kara being downright  _ adorable  _ with the animal. 

 

Everyone looked to have had so much fun and Lena was a little upset with herself for missing it but, with Kara not letting go of her hand for the whole car journey, Lena was finding it a little difficult to be upset with  _ anything _ .The blonde’s had was warm and comforting in her own as Kara rubbed little circles over her knuckles. If Lena was so inclined, she might have said that they fitted together like two puzzle pieces but she wasn’t and so the thought never even crossed her mind, so enraptured was she in what the other girl was saying.

 

Lena felt like she could watch Kara talk all day; her smile was dazzling and the excitement in her eyes was mesmerising. She still talked with her hands as well, sometimes forgetting that she still had a hold of the Luthor and gesturing wildly with both of their hands until she noticed at which point she would blush and stutter and apologise and Lena would assure her that it was fine.

 

They dropped hands as the exited the car at college but, not two seconds later, Kara slipped her arm through Lena’s and that was how they made their way upstairs to the common room. 

 

Everyone was there and they all smiled at Lena and remarked on how she wasn’t dead and told their own Kara stories which prompted the blonde to hide her face in the Luthor’s shoulder which, in turn, caused a blush to appear in Lena’s cheeks.

 

“I wasn’t  _ that bad! _ ” Kara tried to protest. “You’re over-exaggerating.”

 

“I have screen shots from Thursday and James has that video of you from when we were at Maggie’s,” Lucy had informed her. “There is literally no way you can convince us that this didn’t happen.”

 

The blonde had opened her mouth to protest but was cut off by Alex jumping to her feet and shouting ‘Vasquez!’.

 

She was followed shortly by everyone else as Lena craned her neck around to see the girl who had just walked into the common room, a rucksack over her shoulder and a carrier bag in each hand. She was wearing black combat trousers and a flannel and she had a snapback on her head. For some reason, she also had sunglasses perched on her nose, despite the fact that it was barely light.

 

“Hey guys!” she waved at them. “I brought presents!” 

 

“Yaaaaaaassssss!!!” 

 

Lucy practically threw herself across the room to relieve Vasquez of her carrier bags. Once she had them both, she sat back down and looked around at everyone else.

 

“What did you guys get then?”

 

Mon-El playfully pushed her in the shoulder and reached towards one of the bags but Lucy batted his hand away and glared at him like a dragon defending her horde. A very  _ small  _ dragon, but a dragon nonetheless.

 

By this point, Vasquez had reached the table and had been pulled into a hug by Alex and the pair were stood slowly rocking side to side, still embracing.

 

“I’m so glad you’re back,” the redhead was saying. “You’re the only other sensible one here.”

 

Lucy broke off from glaring at Mon-El to cup her hands over her mouth and yell ‘Gayyyyyyy!!!’ but then quickly went back to slapping the boy’s hands away from the bags.

 

“Fuck off Lucinda,” was Alex’s response whilst Vasquez just nodded and said a simple ‘yes’.

 

They broke away from each other and then it was Kara’s turn to launch herself at the other girl, hugging her fiercely and almost causing the both of them to topple over.

 

“Susan, we missed you so much!!”

 

Lena felt a mini pang of jealousy as Kara embraced the other girl but quickly pushed it down; she was being silly. Besides, the blonde was back by her side a moment later.

 

Vasquez sat down shortly after Kara and looked around the table grinning. Then her eyes landed on Lena and she seemed to do a double-take. 

 

“Oh!” Kara appeared to have noticed the other girl’s confusion. “Susan, this is Lena!”

 

James leaned over the table to ruffle the Luthor’s hair. He did not succeed.

 

“We adopted her.”

 

“Her and Kara are in lesbians,” Maggie added.

 

Kara reached across to the smaller girl and lightly punched her on the arm.

 

“We’re  _ not _ dating,” she told Vasquez.

 

The other girl looked pointedly at their interlaced fingers. Lena hadn't even realised that her hand had been reclaimed by the blonde and she blushed as soon as she realised.

 

Kara, for her part, blushed and stammered and was genuinely adorable for at least five minutes as she tried to form a coherent response. Lena found the display to be incredibly endearing, smiling gently at the blonde the whole time. What she didn’t know was that the way she was looking at Kara was part of the cause of the stammering; every time Kara thought she had her thoughts in order, she’d look up and see Lena and then end up all flustered again. It was an endless cycle.

 

In the end, Kara never did succeed in enunciating a response before it was time to leave for class, but she still didn’t let go of Lena’s hand.

  
Not bad for a first morning back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeee!! Vasquez!
> 
> SO yeah! I return! Did everyone miss me? Anyway, college is getting hectic and I am asleep like 90% of the time but I still want to keep updating this so I'm moving updates to once every six days so I can both write and keep up with my work as well as get enough sleep to function on.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and this thing is probably riddled with mistakes because I was trying to edit it but then I got distracted by the news about Katie.
> 
> Come find me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> if you want to yell about things with me because that is pretty much all I've been doing recently.
> 
> See you in six days,
> 
> Three


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I return bearing a chapter! Enjoy!

First period seemed to fly past, Lena was in such high spirits. She felt like nothing could bring her down, not even having to listen to her teacher drone on about things that they’d covered in the lesson before half term that she’d already made notes on. Honestly, she may as well have not turned up, only that she had the homework to hand in.

 

She did breathe a sigh of relief as the clock ticked over to half past ten, though, as they were finally allowed to leave the classroom.

 

When she reached the foyer outside the RC, Kara, Vasquez and Alex were already there waiting, the younger Danvers brandishing a whole pack of chocolate digestives of which Lena was given two.

 

“So you’ll all get your presents at lunch,” Vasquez was saying. “If I ever get them back from Lucy.”

 

The girl in question just smiled sweetly and she tried to hide the carrier bags behind her back.

 

“You little knob.”

 

“You love me really.”

 

“How could I not?”

 

Now it was Alex’s turn to yell ‘gayyyyyyy’ incredibly loudly. Everyone else in the foyer turned to look at them, surprise written across their features as they observed the group laughing and leaning into each other, but they soon lost interest. No one in the group but Lena noticed them staring anyway.

 

*****

 

Second lesson was mind-numbingly dull as well and Lena wondered if every lesson she had today would follow the same pattern and then feverently hoped they wouldn’t; she didn’t think she could survive being taught what she already knew for much longer.

 

But then the teacher was telling them to pack up and was giving out homework and Lena was free. She practically ran through town to buy lunch and then hurried back to the common room as quickly as she could, arriving nearly out of breath with slightly windswept hair.

 

She smiled at the group as she made her way to their normal spot and returned the wave James sent her way, sliding into the seat next to Kara.

 

“Lena!” the blonde seemed more excited than usual. “Look what Susan got us!”

 

She held up a keyring and jangled it in Lena’s face, causing the Luthor to have to grab hold of Kara’s wrist to steady her so she could actually see the item in question. It was gorgeous; beautiful blue beads decorated to look like eyes attached to pieces of colourful string that had been woven into a complex pattern. A large stone, blue like the beads and decorated the same way, was in the centre of this.

 

“Isn’t it pretty?”

 

“Yes,” Lena nodded. She turned to Vasquez. “Did you visit turkey?” she asked. “Or was it Egypt?”

 

“Turkey,” the other girl confirmed. “Here.”

 

She passed a keyring similar to Kara’s to Lena. The only thing that differed was the colour of the strings.

 

“What - ?”

 

“It’s a present; Alex told me we had a new addition to the group so I just picked up an extra keyring.”

 

“Why - ?”

 

“It was no bother,” Vasquez waved off the Luthor’s questioning. “They only cost, like, three quid.”

 

“I - thank you.” Lena’s hand closed around the keyring. “Thank you very much.”

 

Vasquez smiled.

 

“Welcome to the group, Luthor.”

 

“Thank you for having me.”

 

They shook hands then, though Lena had no idea why they did. It all felt rather formal but, at the same time, remarkably casual, like shaking hands was a thing that friends did on a regular basis. For all Lena knew, it might be, actually.

 

“Lena’s finally part of the group!” Lucy shouted, standing up with both hands in the air.

 

“I thought she was already,” Mon-El said, clapping along with everyone else.

 

“No, she hadn’t met Vasquez,” Winn supplied. “Can’t be an official member until you’ve met everyone.”

 

“Now we gotta make her do the initiation ritual!”

 

“Maggie! We don’t have one of those!”

 

“You’re no fun, Kara.”

 

*****

 

The rest of lunch was spent deciding what an initiation ceremony for their group would actually be like. Alex was all up for something mildly violent and probably illegal which Vasquez was incredibly quick to agree to whereas Maggie, Kara and Lucy were adamant that whatever it was it had to be legal. Mon-El decided that a test of bravery was the way to go but they couldn’t agree on what the test would be so that went out the window was well. Lucy suggested matching tattoos but Winn looked panicked so that idea was dropped and they ruled out piercings for the same reason. 

 

This, of course, lead to a discussion about tattoos and body modification during which Lena discreetly tried to hide her recently acquired naval piercing from the others even though she knew they couldn’t see it with the shirt she was wearing. She was fairly certain that Maggie noticed something was up, though, as she shot Lena a quizzical look across the table. Lena pretended not to see and turned her attention back to Winn who was telling them that he had no problem with other people getting things done but that he, himself, would not be up for it.

 

And that was when Kara decided to shock everyone by saying she wouldn’t mind getting a tattoo one day. Alex’s reaction was, of course, to choke on the water she’d just started to drink and the smile on Kara’s face made Lena wonder if she’d been waiting for that exact moment to share the news.

 

“No,” Alex had said as soon as she was able, raising a finger and pointing it at her sister. “You’re too innocent.”

 

“What?!” Kara was indignant. “I’m not  _ innocent! _ ”

 

Alex had raised an eyebrow.

 

“Really?” she’d said. “Name three things you’ve done that an innocent person wouldn’t do.”

 

Kara got about as far as ‘I’ve…’ before she ran out of ideas.

 

“I’ve … drank?” 

 

It came out as more a question than a statement.

 

“That’s  _ one _ .”

 

“I… have a piercing?”

 

Lena had sat up a little…  well, not  _ straighter _ , at that because she was fairly certain that Kara with a piercing would probably make her gayer, but she certainly became suddenly more interested in the conversation.

 

“Ears don’t count,” Alex told her. “Face it, you’re the most innocent out of all of us.”

 

“I’ve kissed someone!” Kara tried to protest. “That’s not innocent!”

 

“Well, that depends,” Maggie had interjected. “Was it like a tiny peck on the lips when you were five or was it ‘made out on the sofa with your hand down their pants’?”

 

“Maggie!” Kara was scandalised. The smaller girl just laughed.

 

“Oh, baby Danvers, you’re so innocent.”

 

“So smol,” Lucy had added, patting the blonde on the head. “So tiny.”

 

It was here that Kara had turned and buried her head in the Luthor’s shoulder.

 

“Lena, they’re being mean to me,” she’d mumbled.   
  


And that was how Lena found herself holding Kara until she had to make her way to her next lesson; computer science with Winn. The blonde had been reluctant to let go of her and had pouted at the loss of contact but then Vasquez and Maggie had ‘awww’ed at them and Kara had fallen under the table, blushing red enough that you’d mistake her for a traffic light.

 

Lena and Winn left for their lesson giggling like idiots.

 

*****

 

It was halfway through the class when the teacher decided to go for a spontaneous walk to an unknown destination for an unknown length of time and so it was halfway through the lesson before Lena and Winn could actually have a conversation.

 

“So, do you, like, ever go on Facebook?” 

 

The young Luthor looked up from her work.

 

“Not really,” she replied. “I never have any reason to.”

 

“Don’t you have messenger on your phone?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Okay,” Winn turned in his seat to face Lena properly. “How are you alive? How do you  _ communicate? _ ”

 

“By texts, mostly, I suppose,” Lena shrugged. “I don’t use my phone very often though.”

 

Winn opened and shut his mouth for a bit. He looked very much like a goldfish that was deep in thought. Eventually, he added pointing to his little moment.

 

“Get,” he said after another small while, “messenger.”

 

“Why?” Lena turned to face Winn again, having gone back to her work for a moment whilst the boy had been thinking about what he was going to say. “It’s not exactly like I’d use it very much.”

 

“Wouldn’t use it?” Winn looked like she’d just told him she’d captured photographic evidence of a pig flying in front of a blue moon. “Have you  _ any  _ idea how often Kara would message you if you actually messaged back?”

 

Lena tried not to blush, she really did. Thankfully, Winn was too busy nattering to notice.

 

“And then there’s the  _ group chat _ ,” he was saying. “The only time  _ that’s  _ quiet is when we’re all asleep!”

 

“I take it that you think it’s a good idea for me to download it then?” Lena interrupted him, politely waiting for a gap in his mini speech.

 

“Yes!”

 

“I’ll think about it then,” she said. 

 

“Get it tonight,” Winn instructed her. “Promise me!”

 

Lena promised.

 

And then the teacher re-entered the room and they had to act like they’d been doing work the whole time.

 

Thankfully, they were not given homework and so Lena made her way to her last lesson with a smile; one more hour to go and then she had a free period before she could go home.

  
Maybe Kara would be free as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, who am I kidding, of course Kara's free. Guess what the next chapter's going to be on.
> 
> So yeah, I'm sticking to updating every six days now because it lets me get content out whilst also maintaining a decent sleep schedule which is very nice and I'm enjoying not being sleep-deprived.
> 
> If you want to come and find me and talk to me, you can locate me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> I'm always open to conversation if I'm awake and online so don't be shy if you want to say hello :)
> 
> And, yeah, that's all I have to say here really.
> 
> See you in six days,
> 
> Three


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aiight, new chapter. On with the show!

When Lena entered the common room after her last lesson of the day, she made a quick scan of the room, noting that the place was practically empty. Presumably, most people who could go home now had already done so. Gosh, if Lena didn’t want to see her friends so much, she’d probably have left by now, too.

 

Oh, who was she kidding; she used to stay in this hour anyway, even when she didn’t have anyone to hang out with. She supposed it was because, where most people could go home, Lena couldn’t; the Luthor house only ever felt like home when Lex was there, an event that was becoming less and less frequent as time went by.

 

She pushed these thoughts from her minds as her eyes fell on Winn in the group’s usual corner, phone in his hands and fingers rapidly tapping the screen. He had his look of immense concentration on; tongue poking out from between pursed lips and eyebrows furrowed. She could see his eyes flickering back and forth over the screen as she drew near, the boy oblivious to her presence. She pulled out a chair opposite to Winn, trying her best not to disturb him and break his concentration; she was sure that he was only playing a game but she knew that some people took these things very seriously.

 

They’d been sat in silence for what Lena guessed to be only about a minute before Winn threw down his phone and rubbed his eyes, head turned skywards. Lena took a quick glance at the screen but didn’t recognise the game that her friend had been so engrossed in.

 

When Winn took his hands away from his eyes, he blinked at the ceiling a little before looking back down.

 

He almost screamed when he did, jumping in his seat and almost falling out of it.

 

Lena raised an eyebrow.

 

“Uhhh… hey.” Winn tried to play it cool. “How, uh, how long have you been there, exactly?” He readjusted his position so that he was awkwardly draped over the seat. I didn’t look the slightest bit comfortable.

 

“Only a little while,” Lena told him. “I didn’t want to disturb you.” She nodded in the direction of Winn’s phone.

 

“Oh, yeah.” He dived forwards to pick up the device. “I was trying to beat Kara’s highscore; she’s… weirdly good at the games on messenger.”

 

He scrolled through something on the screen for a moment, brow furrowed, before looking back up at Lena. He opened his mouth to say something but then caught sight of something over the Luthor’s shoulder and waved. Lena turned around to see who the boy had been waving to and found Kara walking across the room towards them, a brilliant smile on her face and golden hair cascading over her shoulders.

 

She was stunning.

 

Lena forced herself to stop gaping at the other girl as the blonde slid into the seat next to her.

 

“Hey!”

 

She placed her bags on the ground and turned to Lena, opening her arms with a nervous but hopeful look on her face. Lena hesitated for a moment but then practically fell into the blonde’s arms, relishing in the warmth of the other girl and closing her eyes briefly before pulling away

 

“Hi,” she breathed. “Have a good lesson?”

 

Kara laughed, leaning back her chair and putting  her hands over her face.

 

“All we’ve done today,” she told Lena, “is go over things that we did the lesson before we had half term. Which is fine!” She sat up. “I don’t mind; I know some people in the class need the refresher but it’s just… so…” She threw her hands up and slid down in her seat. “You know?” She looked up at Lena through her eyelashes and the Luthor forgot how to speak for a moment.

 

“Yeah,” she eventually managed to get out. “I - my day was similar.”

 

Kara nodded. 

 

“I think everyone’s was.” She turned to Winn, who’d gone back to his game. “Winn?”

 

“Huh?” The boy didn’t take his eyes away from the screen. “Oh, you finally remembered I was here?”

 

Kara lightly kicked him under the table.

 

“How was your day?”

 

“Not - dammit!” he locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket. “Not bad. You?”

 

“Borning.”

 

“That’s to be expected.”

 

The blonde shrugged and then dived under the table, emerging a moment later with a half-eaten packet of Chocolate Hobnobs which she offered to Lena, who took one for politeness sake, and Winn, who took two. He took a bite of one and leant back, his eyes closed.

 

“Kara, you’re amashing,” he told her. “Theshe are sho good!”

 

“I know!” Kara enthusiastically bit into her own biscuit. “They were on offer in the co-op.”

 

Never having actually  _ had  _ a chocolate hobnob before, Lena tentatively nibbled on the edge of the biscuit, hurrying to take a proper bite of it a moment later; it was delicious.

 

Kara nudged the packet in her direction after she finished her first biscuit and, though she knew she shouldn’t, Lena took another.

 

She was just brushing the crumbs off the table when Kara suddenly sat up and almost choked on her Hobnob, holding her phone out for Lena to take.

 

The screen was open to what Lena presumed to be the group chat, displaying a picture of Kara and Lena embracing each other which had been sent by ‘The Legend of Frolo’ and was accompanied by the message ‘ _ Send help I’m stuck with the love birds _ ’. ‘Smol Gay’ had replied with ‘ _ Eyyyyy, get in there Little Danvers! _ ’ and Winn, because ‘The Legend of Frolo’ could only be him, had sent the final message, containing only the words ‘ _ Aid me _ ’.

 

Lena laughed and handed the phone back to Kara, who had stopped coughing by now. The blonde accepted the device and tapped out a hasty response, showing it to Lena when she was done.

 

‘ _ We’re not dating! _ ’

 

“You’re awful,” Kara told Winn, punctuating her statement with a pout.

 

The boy grinned at her.

 

“But you love me so much.”

 

“If I didn’t like these biscuits so much I’d throw one at you.”

 

*****

 

The rest of the hour sped by and, by the time 4:20 rolled around, Kara and Lena had both migrated to to couch-bench where Winn was, the blonde ending up in the middle with Winn leaning on one shoulder and the Luthor or the other. Kara’s head was resting on top of Lena’s, her glasses lying on the table in front of them. No one had spoken much in the last five minutes, each of them being content to just sit there in silence, enjoying one another’s company.

 

Lena found the whole situation to be incredibly comfortable and was reluctant to move when Kara pointed out that they’d have to leave the common room soon or else they’d be kicked out. Unfortunately, the blonde was right; they couldn’t stay like that forever and Lena had a bus to catch home but, when they exited the common room building and she began to make her way towards the bus stops, she found herself being pulled by Kara in the direction of the car park.

 

“Where are we going?” she asked, allowing the blonde to keep leading her to their destination despite the voice in her head that told her she’d better leave now if she wanted to get her bus.

 

“Home.”

 

“Kara, the busses are that way,” she pointed over her shoulder.

 

“Oh, we can give you a lift home; Eliza won’t mind.”

 

Lena looked to Winn for help but the boy only shrugged his shoulders.

 

They met up with Alex by the edge of the car park; the redhead looked dead on her feet and dropped her head onto Kara’s shoulder as soon as the blonde came close enough.

 

“Fuck my life,” she moaned. “That was dire.”

 

“Aww.” Kara let go of Lena’s hand to better hug her sister. “It’s okay; we’re going home now.”

 

The elder Danvers made a noise of strangled despair but stood up a moment later. She nodded at Winn and her eyes passed over Lena before she seemed to do a double take and look at her properly.

 

“You getting a lift home with us, Luthor?”

 

Lena inclined her head.

 

“It would appear so.”

 

“Fair enough. Mum’s going to be here in a minute or two,” she told Kara. “She says she needed to get petrol first.”

 

*****

 

It was five minutes later when Eliza Danvers arrived in the car park and Lena was incredibly glad to be told that driving her home would be no problem. After all, she’d seen her bus drive off and away only a few seconds ago and would have hated to have to get the service. That and she was happy to be able to spend a little more time with Kara and her friends.

 

Eliza turned the radio down as they all piled into the car, Kara in the middle as always.

 

“Have a nice day?” she asked them all, smiling at those in the back through the rear-view mirror.

 

“Ugh!” Alex laid her head on the dashboard. “I need a week off.”

 

“Alex, we  _ just  _ had one of those,” Kara pointed out.

 

“I know, but I need another one.”

 

The blonde rolled her eyes at Lena.

 

“College was good,” she told Eliza. “Mostly just going over stuff we did before half-term.”

 

“Not too hard then?”

 

“I almost fell asleep first period,” Alex announced.

 

Eliza slapped her lightly on the leg.

 

“Alex!”

 

“What?! It’s boring!”

 

*****

 

It had started to rain by the time they were nearly home and, unfortunately for Lena, this meant that Eliza was not too keen on the idea of letting the Luthor out of the car at the bus stop.

 

And so it was that Lena was made to mumble directions to her house.

 

She practically jumped out of the car at the entrance to the driveway, said her thank you’s and goodbye’s and then trudged up to the house. Lillian was waiting for her when she got in, disapproving look on her face and arms folded.

 

“Who was that?” she asked, not bothering with pleasantries.

 

“No one.”

 

Lena met her mother’s gaze.

 

“ _ Friends  _ of yours?” She spat the word out as if it would leave a vile taste in her mouth if she took too long to say it.

 

“Not the sort of ‘friends’ you’re thinking of, Mother,” Lena sighed, adjusting her grip on her bag. “They go to college with me, I missed my bus, they offered me a lift home.”

 

“Hmm.” Lillian pursed her lips together. “That had better be the truth; I’ll not have you causing us any more  _ problems _ .”

  
And then the woman turned on her heel and left, leaving her daughter standing in the entrance hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yah, that was that. Hope you all enjoyed it.
> 
> As usual, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and it'd be lovely if you lot could point out any errors I've made in this.
> 
> If you want to come talk to me or yell at me or whatever, you can find me here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> I'm always up for a chat :)
> 
> Well, that's all I have to say here, see you in six days 
> 
> Three


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap I am so tired. I stayed up way too late writing this thing so apologies of it's not up to my usual standard; I'm incredibly sleepy. Now, on with the chapter!

 

To say that dinner at the Luthor household that night was a nightmare would be an understatement; Lillian began, as she always did, by making passive aggressive comments about Lena to the empty air, looking to Lionel every now and again so he could nod in agreement before she carried on. Of course, Lena was used to this by now and, as such, paid no attention to her mother and her ravings as she picked at the food in front of her.

 

But, unfortunately, Lillian was not in the mood to be ignored that evening and so had launched into interrogating her adoptive daughter about the people that she’d gotten a lift home with. 

 

Now, most mothers would be questioning their children about this sort of thing for safety reasons; they would want to make sure that you knew the people you were getting into a car with and that they were trustworthy and that you had a way to call for help if you needed to. Needless to say that Lillian Luthor is  _ not  _ most mothers.

 

No, instead, Lena was treated to a full fifteen minutes of Lillian asking her questions more suited to a police investigation than idle dinner-table conversation. The woman wanted to know anything and everything about the Danvers to ensure that Lena was making the right sort of friends. She also had the gall to ask if any of them were ‘also unnatural little freaks’ by which, of course, she meant ‘members of the LGBTQA community’.

 

Naturally, Lena had given her mother as little information as possible. After all, what Lillian didn’t know, she couldn’t turn into a weapon. At least, not yet, at any rate; Lena knew that Lillian had her ways of finding things out but the least she could do was delay the inevitable.

 

There was a downside to this tactic though; the less Lena revealed, the more Lillian thought she had something to hide and, so, by the time she ran out of questions to ask, Lillian was  _ convinced  _ that Lena was sleeping with someone because, apparently, that was the only plausible reason for her daughter’s behavior. This then prompted a lecture on how wrong homosexuality was, culminating in Lillian warning Lena not to ‘bring shame on the family again’ and threatening to kick her out of the house if she caused another scandal.

 

It was another fifteen minutes before Lena was able to leave the table, most of her meal untouched, and make her way up to her bedroom where she fell face first onto her bed. She’d developed a headache, courtesy of Lillian, and it was now pounding in her skull.

 

She tried to read a book but found that she couldn’t concentrate and had wound up angrily slamming it down onto her bedside table. She’d wanted to throw it across the room but decided against it; it was a really nice book and she didn’t want to damage it. Instead, she picked up her mobile and opened it to the app store, remembering her promise to Winn that she’d download messenger.

 

When she did, she nearly dropped her phone in shock at the influx of messages. It appeared that  _ everyone  _ had messaged her at some point over the half term, even Mon-El. Of course, his message was only to tell her to speak to Kara and Lena had a feeling that he’d not sent it of his own violation but, instead, had given in to group pressure for Kara’s sake.

 

Everyone else looked to have messaged her of their own accord, some more desperate than others; James had only sent her a few messages, the first few asking her if she would like to come to the Halloween party and detailing the time and place and theme, the later ones asking her to please just message Kara. Maggie’s messages were similar but sounded a lot more desperate, Lena’s favourite being ‘ _ Luthor please just fucking message her she’s stress eating all my tiramisu _ ’ which was shortly followed by ‘ _ you owe me some tiramixu _ ’.

 

Winn had messaged her a lot during the beginning of the break but gave up around Wednesday, correctly assuming that Lena wasn’t ignoring them all but was, instead, just not online. Lucy, though, had decidedly  _ not  _ given up on contacting her. Apparently, the little Lane was under the impression that, if she just sent enough messages, Lena would receive them and reply. She had obviously been wrong.

 

The person who’d sent Lena the second most number of messages was, as one would imagine, no other than Alex Danvers, the most protective older sibling ever to exist, in Lena’s opinion, who had been sending the Luthor a steady stream of messages all the way from Saturday night right the way though to the next Sunday evening. The elder Danvers’ tone in these messaged ranged from ‘concerned friend who just wants to make sure you’re okay’ to ‘ _for fucks sake Luthor, if you don’t get in touch with us right now I’m going to hunt you down with the bread knife_ ’. Lena, at first, wondered how on earth it was that Alex had refrained from following through with her threats before she realised that the girl had probably actually tried but been stopped by someone with a little more sense.

 

As Lena had expected, Kara had been the one to send her the most messages. The girl had begun the week rather calmly, asking Lena if she’d enjoyed the film they’d all gone to see and if she’d be interested in coming to the groups Halloween party. She promised that it wouldn't be too wild and that it was okay if Lena didn’t want to because she knew that parties weren’t for everyone and that it might be a bit weird for the Luthor considering that she didn’t yet know everyone all that well.

 

After that, she’d switched to being a little concerned, then panicky, then desperate before finally settling into a state of apparent resignation to the fact that Lena was probably either dead or ignoring her. It was actually quite disheartening and caused a pang of guilt to spark in the Luthor.

 

Quickly, she shot a message off to Winn saying ‘ _ I’ve downloaded messenger; are you happy now? _ ’ before she decided to pursue the group chat, skimming through the conversation she’d missed out on.

 

Winn messaged he back a moment later.

 

_ Oh my gosh thank goodness!!! _

_ This is amazing! _

_ Thank you so much!!! _

 

Lena chuckled at his enthusiasm.

 

_ You’re welcome. _

 

_ This makes my life so much easier _

 

_ Glad to hear it. _

 

Lena went back to looking through the group chat and the pictures from Halloween that she’d already mostly seen thanks to James at lunchtime. Honestly, the more she looked at them, the more she wished she’d been there; it looked like it had been a fun night.

 

And then Lena received a notification telling her she’d been sent a message.

 

It was from Kara.

 

Lena’s heart did a funny little jump in her chest at the sight of the blonde’s icon at the top of her screen.

 

_ Hi!!!! _

 

_ Hello. _

 

_ Winn said you got messenger _

 

_ I did. _

 

_ That’s great! _

_ I’m sorry for spamming you with messages over the break _

_ I got a bit carried away _

_ So sorry _

 

Lena had never felt so guilty in all her life; Kara had nothing to be sorry for. If anything, Lena should be the one to apologize for worrying the other girl.

 

_ Kara, honestly, it’s fine, _ she typed.  _ I’m sorry I wasn’t online to talk to you. _

_ I’ll try to be more present in the future. _

 

_ Oh no Lena it’s fine! _

_ You don’t have to change what you do for me! _

_ I shouldn’t bother you so much _

_ It’s just _

_ I don’t know _

_ You weren’t answering _

_ And I panicked _

_ And I’m sorry _

_ I’ll try not to do it again _

_ Wait _

_ I’m doing it now aren’t I? _

_ Am I bothering you? _

_ Oh my gosh I am _

_ I’m so sorry _

_ I’ll go _

 

_ Kara. _

 

_ No it’s fine _

_ I’m sorry _

_ I’ll stop bothering you _

 

_ You’re not bothering me. _

 

There was silence for a while and Lena feared that the blonde had offlined. She debated shooting another message off to the other girl but it turned out that she didn’t need to.

 

_ ….Are you sure? _

 

She smiled to herself.

 

_ I’m sure, Kara. _

_ I don’t think you could ever bother me. _

 

And so began the longest online conversation Lena had ever had in all her life, including conversations she’d had with Lex over the years. They talked about anything and everything; what Lena was currently reading and what she thought of it, Kara’s favourite TV shows and films that the blonde insisted Lena needed to see before she died. 

 

There was a point when Kara officially decided that Lena absolutely  _ needed  _ to see the  _ Marvel _ films as soon as humanly possible and decided that the Luthor would come over on the weekend for a marathon, starting from the very beginning and ending only once they’d seen all of the films and all of the TV shows that made up the Marvel universe. At first, Lena had been convinced that Kara was joking but, only a moment later, she received a message off Alex saying ‘ _ So you’re coming over on Saturday? _ ’. 

 

It was then that Lena realised Kara had been serious and wondered what on earth she’d agreed to.

 

_ And you have to watch them in order as well  _ Kara had said.

_ You can’t just watch Iron Man 1 then two then three because that’s not the order _

_ I mean _

_ It is the order but it isn’t _

_ There are a lot of other films in between _

_ I’ll need to look up the actual correct order actually _

 

_ Just how many of these films are there, Kara? _

 

_ Oh _

_ Umm _

_ I don’t know _

_ I’ll check _

 

_ Okay. _

 

_ Well, wikipedia says fourteen _

 

_ Fourteen? _

 

_ Yeah _

_ Now that I’m looking at it that’s actually a lot _

_ Wow _

_ We might need to do this in more than one weekend _

 

_ Really, Kara? I’d never have guessed. _

_ If those films are two hours each, which I suspect they are, that’s 28 hours of film. _

 

_...I think we’re going to need to do this over a longer period of time _

 

_ Good idea. _

 

_ But you’ve seen one of them already! _

_ We don’t have to watch that one again _

_ Well _

_ We can’t really _

_ It’s not out on DVD yet _

_ So only 26 hours _

 

_ You say that as if two hours less makes it a more reasonable time. _

_ And I have? _

 

_ Yeah! _

_ It was the one we all went to see together! _

 

_ Ah. _

_ Is that why I didn’t understand any of it? _

 

It was half past ten before they stopped talking, Kara apparently having been told by Eliza to get off her computer and go to sleep. The blonde had been absolutely adorable about the whole situation, wishing Lena good night at least ten times and smattering in several ‘sweet dreams!’s as well. She also sent a plethora of colourful emojis, which Lena couldn’t help but smile at, and a promise that she’d her her in the morning when they picked her up.

  
The Luthor went to bed with a smile on her face. She couldn’t wait to see Kara tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta da! Done.
> 
> Well, I'm too tired to do much here now.
> 
> As always, comments are appreciated, feedback is welcome and feel free to point out any mistakes I've made here. Oh, actually, that reminds me; the typos in Maggie's messages are intentional. I know they are there and that was on purpose.
> 
> And that's that essentially. If you want to come find me on tumblr, I'm here
> 
> https://thr3eguess3s.tumblr.com/
> 
> and you can come talk to me if you feel like it.
> 
> I'll see you in six days,
> 
> Three


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'I'll update soon' she said.
> 
> Apparently I'm a horrible person because I lied so bad to you all then and I'm sorry. I ended up being kinda busy and next thing I know I'm on my second term of University. The time didn't even stop to say hello as it flew by.
> 
> Anyway, due to my new position as a uni student, I'm going to try to keep this story going because I really do have a lot of fun writing it, and I'm going to try for a chapter a week because I think that's all I can reasonably manage at this stage.
> 
> Anyway, talk to you a bit more down the bottom, enjoy the chapter :)
> 
> (I'm so sorry for making you wait for it as long as you have)

  
  
  


The next morning, Lena was awoken by a series of loud pinging noises. Well, they may have just been loud because she’d managed to fall asleep with her phone very close to her head but, either way, they woke her up. This greatly confused the Luthor at first as she was usually woken up by the sound of her alarm; a delightful little tune that she’d long grown to despise, but she soon realised that the little noises that her phone was _still_ making were those that were made by the messenger app.

 

Two seconds later and Lena realised that that could mean only one thing; Kara was messaging her.

 

At God-knows-what time in the morning.

 

Hastily, Lena scrambled around for her phone; it was only by her head but her hands were tangled up in blankets which resulted in her knocking the device to the ground, swearing, knocking her head on the bedside table as she went to pick it up, swearing _again_ and then finally blinding herself when she lit up the screen.

 

After a few moments of blinking her sight back to normal, Lena unlocked her phone and tapped the little bubble in the top right corner which housed Kara’s profile picture. The chat opened up to reveal that Kara had indeed been massaging her, despite the fact that was (Lena squinted at the clock) ten past five.

 

_Good Morning!_ Kara had sent. This was accompanied by many emojis and followed by a string of stickers.

 

_Wait_

_I’m sorry_

_You’re probably not up yet_

_Are you?_

_Wait why am I asking?_

_Of course you’re not awake_

_If you were you’d have seen these by now_

_Probably_

_I mean_

_Most people check their phones pretty often so if you were awake you would have done that and then you would have replied_

_Right?_

_Most people aren’t even up at five_

_Only people with jobs that start really early and weird people get up at five_

_Not that I’m saying you’re weird if you’re awake!_

_You’re perfect_

_*Perfectly normal_

_Sorry_

_I hit enter too early_

_Not that you’re not perfect as well!_

_Because you are_

_I’m the weird one_

_Because I’m up at five_

_I don’t even know why it’s just like my body decided I need to be awake at five every day so I am?_

_Alex says it’s something about my body clock?_

_But I don’t know who set the clock because I hate waking up this early_

_There’s no one to talk to_

_And I can’t even get breakfast because then I’ll wake up Krypto_

_And if I wake up Krypto then he’ll wake up Alex_

_And Eliza_

_And Jeremiah_

_So I’m stuck in my room_

_And I’m hungry_

_Are you hungry?_

_Wait you’re not up_

_Never mind._

 

Lena smiled to herself as she read through the messages. If it were anyone else, she would have rolled over and gone back to sleep and ignored the messages until she was properly awake.

 

But this was Kara.

 

_Good morning, Kara._

 

The response was instantaneous

 

_Lena!!!_

_Hi!!!!!!!_

_Did you sleep well?_

 

_Very well, thank you._

_And yourself?_

 

_Oh yeah!_

_I always do_

_Alex says I sleep like a log_

_I did have this really weird dream though_

_I can’t really remember it_

_I think I was flying?_

_And there may have been some explosions_

_But I don’t really know_

_What about you?_

 

_Did I have any dreams?_

 

_Yeah_

 

_Not that I can recall._

 

_Aww_

_That’s a shame_

_Dreams are great_

_Once_

_I dreamt that I was in Hogwarts_

_And Alex was a teacher_

_But I don’t know why_

 

The rest of the morning comprised of Lena going about her usual routine whilst also trying to keep up a conversation with Kara. This meant that she ended up taking more time than usual to get herself ready and she wondered how on earth Kara was managing to keep typing as the other girl was surely also at least a little busy.

 

She’d informed Lena at one point that she was finally eating breakfast and yet the stream of messages didn’t even pause until five minutes before Lena herself was planning on leaving the house.

 

Honestly, it was rather impressive.

 

*****

 

The Danvers met Lena at the bus stop, as had become the new usual.

 

Eliza smiled at her as she sat down and strapped herself in.

 

“The girls have told me you’ll be coming over on the weekend, Lena,” she said, pulling away from the kerb. “I’m going shopping today, are there any particular snacks you’d like?”

 

“Oh! We need popcorn!” Kara interjected before Lena could even properly process the question. “And cookies.”

 

“Ooh, can we get some of those spicy crisps we got last time?” Alex asked.

 

“And we need lemonade!”

 

“Wait, wait, wait.” Winn gestured for them all to stop and they did, turning to look at him as he sat with a confused expression on his face. “Popcorn,” he pointed to Kara, “lemonade, and crisps,” he turned to Alex, finger still outstretched, and then swung back around to face Kara and Lena.

 

“Are you guys having a sleepover-movie-marathon?”

 

“And TV shows!” Kara was practically bouncing in her seat. “Lena’s never seen any of the Marvel stuff.”

 

“Whaaaaaaaaat?!” Winn looked scandalised.

 

“I know! I didn’t think it was possible!”

 

“You know you can’t watch everything in one weekend, right?”

 

“I pointed that out,” Lena told him. “That’s why we’re apparently doing it over several.”

 

“It’s going to be so much fun! Do you want do join us?”

 

“Hmm, let me think,” Winn’s voice was practically dripping with sarcasm. “Do I want to spend a series of weekends watching all things Marvel whilst spending time with my favourite people and eating amazing snacks? I don’t know….”

 

“Sounds awful, doesn’t it?” Lena grinned.

 

“It _does_. You know, I might have to give this one a pass Kara.”

 

The blonde punched him lightly in the arm.

 

“Shut up, I know you want to.”

 

“I’m not so sure.”

 

“I’ll get you your favourite doritos,” Alex promised.

 

“Well, in that case, count me in!”

 

*****

 

When the little group got up to the common room, Alex got out her phone and made a plan on the group chat, containing the what, where and when of what was going on, it having been agreed upon in the car that she should do so. It went without saying that everyone was invited, but, without a solid, written plan, they’d be asking what was going on every five minutes.

 

“There,” Alex said proudly, “all sorted. And if _anyone_ ,” here she looked pointedly at Lucy, who adopted a look of pure, incorruptible innocence, “asks me what time we’re meeting again, I’m going to shove their phone sideways down their throat.”

 

“Hey, Alex?” Vasquez piped up.

 

“I’ll shove yours up your arse.”

 

“Kinky.”

 

“Vasquez, no!”

 

*****

 

By the time it was time to go to lessons, everyone had seen the plan in the chat and confirmed their attendance. Lena wondered, once again, just what on earth she’d managed to sign herself up for, especially after Kara brought out the pictures from the last time they’d all done something similar.

 

Apparently, these sorts of gatherings usually started off innocently enough, but soon devolved into drinking and messing about whilst the film they were supposed to be watching carried on playing in the background. Many pictures featured at least one person asleep, Krypto being very excited and Alex with a bottle of some sort in her hand.

 

It looked like a lot of fun, and made Lena regret, once more, that she’d missed the invite to the Halloween party. Everyone looked so happy, even in the videos where they were waking up and reacting to their now sharpie-decorated faces.

 

It was nothing like any of Lena’s previous experiences with sleepovers and alcohol, most of which involved a group of her classmates sneaking out of their dorms in the dead of night to get illegal tattoos from shady people, and even more of which ended only after a large majority of them were throwing up somewhere. She remembered with a shudder the first time someone had managed to smuggle in some Tequila - she still wasn’t sure she went to class the next day sober, despite spending way too much of the night lying on her bathroom floor regretting everything she’d ever done up to that moment.

 

Walking up the steps to computer science though, Lena couldn’t stop smiling - this time would be different. This time, no one would be yelling for her to do shots with them, despite knowing she’d had way too much to drink already. This time, they’d be comfy and relaxed in their pyjamas, not dressed to the nines despite the fact that they more than likely weren’t going anywhere. This time, it’d be fun.

 

At least, she hoped as much.

 

“These things never get out of hand, do they?” she asked Winn as they took their seats.

 

“Huh?”

 

“The sleepovers, no one ever gets too drunk, do they?”

 

“What? Oh, no,” he reassured her. “Only Alex drinks excessive amounts, and then Kara puts her on water for the rest of the night. And you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to!” he added hastily. “I don’t usually, and nor does Kara.”

 

“Oh?” Lena made no mention of her plan of not getting through the night without at least a glass of wine. “Why’s that?”

 

Winn shrugged.

 

“I just don’t feel the need to most of the time, and Kara just doesn’t.”

 

“I see….”

 

“Oh, sir’s back, pretend you’re working.”

 

Lena did just that, logging in to the system as she wondered just what the weekend had in store for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know, you waited all that time for that. Sorry, just getting back into the swing of things really, need to give myself a bit of time to get used to writing stories again.
> 
> It's actually been really weird and I hadn't realised how much I'd missed creative writing until I sat down to get this out. Essays and shit are just not the same.
> 
> So yeah, I'm going to try to write one chapter a week, but that is by no means a guarantee because I have a lot of work to get done that my future apparently depends on me doing. If I don't do that, either go 'eh, she's probably busy' or come kick me up the arse, whatever you feel like, I genuinely don't mind either way.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, yell at me about spelling mistakes if you like, I'll catch you next week.
> 
> I'm off to get smashed,
> 
> Three


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Slides this into existence as if I didn't drop off the face of the planet again*
> 
> Enjoy! (I hope)

The weekend couldn’t come quickly enough.

 

It was all Lena cold think about, and was pretty much the default topic of conversation, everyone either arguing about what order to show the films (“I  _ know  _ ‘The Incredible Hulk’ comes  _ after  _ ‘Iron Man 2’ but it was released  _ before it _ , Kara!”), what snacks should be had (“We need biscuits!”, “Biscuits aren’t a film food, Kara.”, “How dare you! Biscuits are suitable for every occasion!”), or who was going to be sharing a room with who this time around (“I don’t care how much you pay me, I’m  _ not  _ sharing a room with someone who snores like a lawnmower!”, “Come on, Winn, he’s not  _ that  _ bad.”, “Nope! Not doing it!”).

 

It was positively delightful, even though Lena mostly found herself observing these discussions as opposed to contributing to them. It was fun to watch everyone argue, fun to watch Lucy threaten to hide James’ phone to stop him taking embarrassing pictures of her, fun to watch Kara taunt Alex with the location of the vodka she’d hidden the night before.

 

Lena smiled through it all, laughing with the rest of them and enjoying the way Kara smiled at her when she did so.

 

It was only at home, once the huge front door closed behind her and trapped her in the house with the woman she was supposed to call mother, that her smile fell.

 

“Absolutely not,” Lillian had said when Lena asked about the weekend. “I know  _ exactly  _ what goes on in those  _ sleepovers  _ you love so much, and I won’t tolerate you bringing shame on the family name again!”

 

“Mother,” Lena all but hissed through gritted teeth, “it’s  _ not  _ like that, and you know it.” In the back of her mind, the youngest Luthor knew that fighting back was probably the worst decision she could have made, but she’d had enough. “I just want to go to a friend’s house and watch some films; what’s so  _ deviant _ about that?”

 

Lillian scoffed.

 

“Stop trying to sound so innocent, it doesn’t suit you.” The woman closed in on her daughter and pointed a well manicured finger at her. “I know what you are, Lena, I know what you’re  _ like _ ; sneaking out, breaking laws.” She sneered. “You can lie to me all you want, but I know the truth; I know about that  _ hideous  _ tattoo of yours, and those disgusting acts you and so many of those other girls participated in, and I know that this is no different.”

 

“Mother-”

 

“I can’t believe you even have the  _ gall  _ to ask for my permission fo this. There is no way that you’re going, and that’s final.”

 

She turned on her heel and began to walk away, signaling the end of the conversation, but whirled back around quicker than blinking when Lena half-blurted, half-shouted, ‘Mother, you’re being unreasonable!’.

 

The slap echoed throughout the room, and left Lena clutching her cheek and Lillian breathing heavily.

 

“ _ Don’t  _ you  _ dare  _ take that tone of voice with me,” she whispered. “Don’t you  _ dare _ , and now look what you’ve made me do!” She waved her hand around as if it had acted on it’s own accord in reaction to the youngest Luthor’s words. “You’re lucky to still be living in this house, and you wouldn’t be if it was up to me, so you’ll watch your mouth and do as you’re told.”

 

This time, when she turned away, Lena didn’t call after her; she just stood there, hand on her face, and the shimmer of tears in her eyes.

 

*****

 

That night, she lay awake for longer than she should have done, a homemade ice-pack pressed to her cheek, which she’d lathered with aloe vera. It wasn’t the first time her mother had it her, and it more than likely wouldn’t be the last, but that  _ had  _ been the first time Lena had been threatened with being kicked out.

 

Idly, she wondered what she’d do if that ever happened. Would she ask Lex to take her in? Would she end up back in the foster system?

 

Honestly, she had no idea, but she found that she didn’t particularly care; she’d be okay, after all, whatever happened, she was sure of it. She was a Luthor, if by name only, and she was tough. She was strong and independent, and she’d weather any storm that came for her.

 

Just as Lena was finally starting to think about tossing the ice into the sink and calling it a night, her phone pinged. She debated leaving it, ignoring it until morning, but she knew that it was probably Kara who’d messaged her, and she could do with some cheering up.

 

_ Hi! Did your mum say you could come??? _

 

Lena bit her lip and glanced at her bedroom door.

 

_ Yes _

_ I can’t wait; this is going to be so much fun! _

 

After all, she’d done it before, and what Lillian didn’t know couldn’t hurt Lena.

 

*****

 

When the morning came around, Lena examined her face in the mirror and winced at the still-visible handprint that adorned it. Luckily, the swelling was practically nonexistent by now, so it wouldn’t be too much of a bother to cover the mark with makeup.

 

After she’d done what was necessary, Lena looked at herself again and decided ‘fuck it’, pulling her makeup bag out from her bag. She’d been woken up at five again by Kara, which meant she had a fair amount of time to kill before she’d have to leave the house, so she might as well make herself look stunning. It might make her feel better as well.

 

And it did.

 

There was just something about putting on makeup that relaxed Lena, somehow. She supposed it might be because it was similar to art, or painting, in a way, so the repetitive movements of her hands as she worked to turn her face into a masterpiece had a calming effect. A lot of people painted to relieve stress, didn’t they? Well, Lena couldn’t paint, but she would most certainly apply makeup. If she could, she’d doll herself up to the nines every day, lose herself to the brush strokes of the blush and the elegant darkness of the eyeliner, but she usually refrained, finding that she hated the feeling of heavy makeup after she’d been wearing it for too long.

 

When she got into the Danvers’ car that morning, though, she considered that suffering through the mild-discomfort of false-eyelashes and excessive eyeshadow might be worth it to see Kara look at her the way she was doing now; the blonde was out-right ogling her. 

 

Kara’s eyes were as wide as saucers and focused solely on the Luthor, who’d also elected to wear a brilliantly-short skirt, and a dainty form-fitting blouse. Of course, she was wearing a thick winter coat over the top of all that, so maybe that wasn’t what Kara was focused on, but, still, Lena couldn’t help but smile at the other girl.

 

“Hey,” she said gently, settling her bag by her feet so she could wrangle the seatbelt into place.

 

Winn whistled as the youngest Danvers sister seemed to be trying desperately to remember how to speak.

 

“Dayum, Lena, special occasion?”

 

The Luthor shrugged.

 

“I just felt like it,” she said honestly. “Plus, I had the time, thanks to someone waking me up so early.” She grinned, and elbowed Kara, who was still resembling a goldfish to a rather alarming degree.

 

“Oh yeah, she does that sometimes,” Winn grinned.

 

“Well, whyever you did it, you clean up nicely,” Alex turned around in her seat to look at the other girl. “How long did it take?”

 

“Uuuhhh,” Lena thought for a moment. “I think it was about-”

 

“You look beautiful!”

 

Kara had apparently regained control of her senses well enough to blurt out what was, apparently, the only thing on her mind.

 

“Thank you, Kara,” Lena smiled.

 

“I mean,  _ really  _ beautiful.”

 

Lena blushed under her makeup and the intensity of the blonde’s gaze. The fire in Kara’s gorgeous blue eyes pierced her to her very soul, and she found that keeping eye-contact was too much for her poor heart to take, so she lowered her gaze instead, biting her lip as she did so.

 

She glanced up a second later though when she thought she hear a small, strangled noise that sounded like it came from somewhere at the back of Kara’s throat, and found Kara with a look on her face that was a mixture of agonised and captivated. 

 

A hand left Lena’s, and she lamented the loss for all of two seconds before soft fingers reached up to caress her face. She had no idea how long they stayed like that.

 

“So beautiful.”

 

“Guys, I hate to break the moment,” Alex stage-whispered, expertly breaking the moment, “but we’re here.”

 

And so they were.

 

Lena blinked and looked around, wondering how they’d managed to get to college so quickly. Her eyes landed on Alex, who was grinning like a cat that got the cream, and she fought the urge to blush.

 

They got out of the car, said their thanks to Eliza for the lift, and made their way up to the common room, Lena replaying the journey over and over in her head as they did so. She could still feel Kara’s eyes looking into her soul and calling it beautiful, still feel the ghost of the touch that she’d been graced with. The heat refused to leave her cheeks as the blonde’s hand refused to leave her own, and Lena found herself grinning like an idiot as she was tugged along and up the stairs.

 

If this was the kind of reaction that she got when she put a little more effort into her makeup than usual, then maybe she should doll herself up a little for the weekend’s movie marathon? Then again, she could barely survive a car ride with Kara when she was looking at her so intensely, so how on earth did she expect to last a weekend?

 

Hell, how did she expect to last the day?!

 

On second thoughts, maybe the makeup had been a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I'm a horrible person and I lied to you all again. What was it I said? I'd update once a week? Ha, good joke past me. Anyway, I do apologise for the wait and the lack of activity; I'd like to say I've been busy? And I have? But not the kind of busy that would keep me from writing this; I've just been doing other projects, focusing a little more on original stories and learning digital art.
> 
> This chapter may not be completely up to my usual standard for this story because getting back into the swing of things is difficult, and I'd actually forgotten what on earth I'd written so I had to go back and re-read the whole story. Aren't I just the best writer ever? No, whatever, I'm going to try to keep this going now (she says) but I'm not going to make any promises or even vague commitments as to when you can expect the next chapter of this.
> 
> As usual, I'm shattered, comments and feedback are both welcome and appreciated, and I'd be really grateful if you could point out any spelling and grammar errors you see; I made myself rush to finish this otherwise I knew I'd never get it done.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and for being so patient with me,
> 
> Three


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Three posting a chapter only a week after the last one went up? Who on earth called in a favour to get this miracle to occur?

Somehow, both Lena and Kara succeeded in surviving the many heart-stoppages caused by the Luthor’s spontaneous decision to look even more stunning than usual, although they were not completely unscathed; the rest of the group had mercilessly teased Kara for her blushing and stuttering, and the way she would get lost in thought just gazing at Lena. Thankfully, no one could see Lena blush under her makeup, or she would certainly have been treated to the same teasing, but she was still accused of dressing up deliberately to impress the blonde. It didn't exactly help that she pulled the same stunt the next day, either; the handprint was still slightly visible, and she thought Kara would be better able to handle herself now she’d already seen the Luthor in full makeup.

 

She was wrong.

 

Kara was still the same stuttering, stammering mess she had been the day before, and she still couldn’t take her eyes of Lena. 

 

And then there were the (minor) physical injuries, mostly caused by Kara looking at Lena as opposed to where she was going, and walking into a plethora of walls, doors, and people, some of whom were knocked to the floor. Kara was, of course, profusely apologetic to whoever she’d accidentally pushed over, and Lena was forced to bite her lip to stop herself smiling at the the other girl as she gathered fallen folders and textbooks and handed them back to their rightful owners, stammering out ‘sorry’s all the while.

 

The other injuries were caused by Alex, Lucy, or Maggie, who had all taken it upon themselves to flick Kara in the ear whenever she smiled dreamily at Lena for too long.

 

Still though, everyone survived the two days, and breathed a sigh of relief when Lena neglected to doll herself up on the Friday. 

 

The Luthor noticed the look, firstly, on Kara’s face when she got into the Danvers’ car that morning, and she understood it completely; she didn’t think her heart could take another day of watching the blonde babble adorably whenever she looked at her.

 

As expected, Alex was the most vocal about it.

 

“Oh thank god!” she shouted, having glanced at Lena in the rearview mirror as she buckled her seatbelt up. “Oh my days!” She turned in her seat. “Do you know how much she wouldn’t shut up about you?”

 

“Alex,” Eliza admonished. “Don’t be mean to your sister.”

 

“You didn’t have to listen to the 397 variations of ‘oh Alex, Lena’s so perfect’,” the redhead shot back at her mother.

 

Lena glanced at the blonde and found her trying to fade out of existence next to her, face buried in her hands but clearly flushed a brilliant red behind them.

 

“397?” Winn asked. “Hasn’t it been closer to 450 now? I mean, I’ve  _ definitely  _ been messaged about it at least a dozen times.”

 

“Hey!” Kara protested, sitting up straighter and pointing an accusatory finger. “I actually didn’t do that.”

 

“Um, yes you did?”

 

“Then you’ll have proof of the conversations.”

 

“Of… course I do,” the boy lied terribly, shuffling awkwardly in his seat. “But I’m not going to show Lena to save you the embarrassment.”

 

“Winn, I think we’re past the point of saving Kara from embarrassment,” Alex reminded him.

 

“Good point, but I’m still not going to show the screenshots.”

 

“That’s because they don’t exist.”

 

“They do too, Kara!”

 

*****

 

The conversation/argument lasted all the rest of the way to the common room, and would have continued, more than likely, if it wasn’t for Lucy practically pouncing on them the moment they walked through the doors.

 

“Kara!” she shouted. “We’re watching the films in chronological order, aren’t we?”

 

“Um..”

 

“No, come on, we  _ have  _ to do them in release order,” Vasquez called from the corner. “That way the end credits scenes make more sense.”

 

“Well-”

 

“Shut up,  _ Susan _ . What do the credits scenes even matter if we’re marathoning them?”

 

“They matter if we watch them the right way, and what do you know? You probably watch Star Wars starting from episode 1!”

 

“That’s the  _ right way to watch them _ !!”

 

“In what world?!”

 

“Guys!” Kara shouted, effectively silencing the bickering pair. All eyes in the common room swivelled to the group, but the blonde didn't seem too bothered. “Now, let’s all just sit down and talk about this like adults.”

 

“You know, I’m pretty sure that most adults wouldn't be discussing what the correct order to watch a set of films in is,” James pointed out.

 

“You’d be surprised,” Winn sighed, sliding into the seat next to him. “Now, chronological is  _ clearly _ the way to go here.”

 

“No, I’m actually with Vasquez on this one,” Alex chipped in. 

 

“Pfftt, what?” Winn looked shocked, and the look of betrayal on Lucy’s face was enough to break hearts.

 

Vasquez opened her mouth to gloat, but was stopped short by a loud groan that appeared to have come from Maggie, who was slumped over the table with her head in her hands.

 

“Can we  _ please  _ not start this again?” She sat up. “I have been listening to  _ them _ ,” she pointed to Lucy and Vasquez, “talk about this for  _ far too long _ and I am losing my mind!”

 

“Okay,” Kara held up her hands. “Okay, Maggie, okay. In all honesty, I haven’t actually decided the order yet; I was going to let Lena pick.”

 

Lena suddenly understood what a deer felt like when it was caught in the headlights as everyone on the table turned to look at her.

 

“Umm…” she said, eloquently.

 

“You don’t have to pick now,” Kara tried to reassure her.

 

“Oh yes she does,” Maggie insisted. “Because, otherwise, I’ll have to listen to you all trying to convince her to pick your side. She choses now, and we don’t talk about it for the rest of the day, deal?” She glared at everyone until the nodded and mumbled in agreement, then sank back in her seat with a sigh of relief.

 

“Come on then, Luthor,” Vasquez spoke up. “What’s it gonna be?”

 

“And no asking your girlfriend what order she prefers, either!” Maggie tagged on.

 

Kara choked on the biscuit she’d just put in her mouth.

 

Lena looked about at the expectant faces, now genuinely stuck since she couldn't ask the blonde’s opinion; part of her agreed that films should be shown in the order in which they were released, but, at the same time, the Marvel films didn’t seem like they type of movies that would be negatively impacted by watching them chronologically.

 

She then thought about the people she’d be disappointing if she picked the opposite side; she didn’t know Vasquez that well and wanted to make a good impression, and she definitely didn't want to get on Alex’s bad side. But, then again, if she chose to watch the films in release order, she’d be sure to upset Lucy, and she didn’t think she could handle the smaller girl pouting at her all day without feeling horrendously guilty. That thought, coupled with the fact the she trusted Winn’s judgement on all things nerdy, helped Lena to come to a decision.

 

“Chronological,” she stated surely.

 

The uproar was instantaneous.

 

Lena was immediately tackled in a hug by Lucy whilst Winn did a tiny little victory dance in the background, James shaking his head next to him. Alex protested loudly, and tried to flick Lucy in the nose when the smaller girl laughed in her face, and Vasquez kept muttering ‘you’ve let me down, Luthor’ under her breath. Maggie’s head returned to the table with a loud thud and a mumbled ‘I knew this would happen’, and the Luthor couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor girl.

 

But all Lena could really see was Kara’s bright smile, and she knew then that she’d made the right decision, especially when the blonde’s hand slid into her own under the table and squeezed.

 

*****

 

Thankfully, everyone had settled down by lunch, which passed without incident, everyone agreeing that the order of the films didn’t really matter. In fact, the rest of the  _ day  _ somehow managed to pass without incident, but that was probably because everyone was just so excited for the weekend. 

 

Despite the fact that a plan had been put up on the group chat, Alex reiterated the time for anyone who couldn't be bothered to check their phones, and informed Lena that Eliza had offered to pick her up if her own mother couldn't drop her down. The Luthor remembered the look on her mother’s face after she’d slapped her and gladly accepted the lift, arranging to be picked up at the bottom of her driveway, and wondering just how on earth she’d manage to escape this time.

 

After all, she’d made the error of telling Lillian the sleepover existed, so now the woman was sure to be on the lookout for her disobedient daughter. There was no chance Lena could just slip out unnoticed now, and she couldn’t just brush off her vanishing act as a trip into town if it was going to be overnight. She could only hope the woman slipped up at some point in her surveillance. 

 

Then again, Lillian barely paid any heed to Lena when she was in the house, so it was unlikely she would be missed. And how many times had she snuck out of boarding school, when no less than three teachers were patrolling the hallways at once? And how many of those times had been when she was so drunk she was struggling to see straight? Avoiding one woman, who oftentimes forgot she existed, whilst fully sober, would be easy, right?

 

At dinner that night, Lillian made it very clear that such a thing would not be as easy as Lena would have hoped.

 

“Don’t think I haven’t forgotten your plans for the weekend,” she said, pointing a fork at her daughter. “And if you’re planning on sneaking out then think again.”

 

“The plans have changed, mother,” Lena lied. “Because I’ve told them I can’t come, they’re going to reschedule to sometime when I’m free.”

 

Lillian scoffed.

 

“Very clever,” she said, spearing a forkful of food as if it had personally offended her. “No, you can’t lie to me, Lena; you’ll try to slip away under cover of darkness again, but I’ll be watching.”

 

Lena tried to conceal her smile as her mother revealed her hand.

 

“I wouldn’t dream of it, mother.”

 

*****

 

Back in her room, Lena couldn’t stop grinning to herself; this was going to be simpler than she’d dared believe. Lillian thought that, because she was going on a sleepover, she’d be leaving the house around the evening time, possibly late-afternoon at a stretch, but that was not so. No, due to the nature of the gathering, and wanting to watch as many films as possible in one weekend, it had been decided that they would all convene at the Danvers’ house at 10 o’clock in the morning, and that a lunch of party snacks would be provided for them to nibble on throughout the day and into the evening.

 

Setting an alarm for the morning, the excitement finally hit Lena properly, and she could barely sleep. In fact, she was still awake at one in the morning, so she stole out of bed and down to the wine cellar, picking out a few bottles of red that her mother was sure not to miss. She even grabbed a bottle of her father’s least-favourite whiskey; it was still good, and rather expensive, but the man never drank it and they had way too much. One bottle couldn't hurt.

 

Oh yes, this weekend was going to be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not back to my usual standard, I don't think, but I'm getting there; coming back to this thing after so long is strange, but I like it :) I'm also very much in a hurry to get to the weekend movie-marathon, in case you couldn't tell, so apologies to anyone who wanted a chapter full of Kara being a dorky gay mess around a dolled-up Lena.
> 
> Oh, and I'm back in uni now btw; classes haven't started yet but I've moved into my new house (yes, that does mean I managed to write this whilst also packing and moving and unpacking) and life is cool. However, my bedroom does have a random hook on one wall that you'd think could be used to hang things like your coat on, but you can't, because it's attached by Velcro so falls off if anything lighter than a feather is hung on it.
> 
> Stories of my life aside, I'm enjoying being back in the swing of things, and I can actually say with confidence that another chapter will be out next week because I've already started writing it and I have nothing better to do with my time! Ain't you all just the luckiest of ducks?
> 
> As always, comments are welcome, feedback is appreciated, and I'd love you to pieces if you pointed out any spelling and grammar mistakes so I can go back and correct them. (That reminds me, I'm gonna be fixing errors in other chapters so if you see they've been updated don't worry, it's just cleanup; nothing extra's being added).
> 
> See you next week!
> 
> Three


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you I'd be back, didn't I? Hope you enjoy the chapter, see you at the bottom :)

In the morning, Lena awakes before the alarm she’s set, not as well-rested as she was hoping to be, but she actually managed to get some sleep in the end so she calls it a win. She deactivates the alarm before she forgets about it, and before it can go off; no use the thing being on if she’s already awake, and, as she does so, she notices a message from Kara. Smiling, she opens the chat and grins at the texts, apparently sent at five in the morning.

 

_ Oh my gosh you’re coming over today I’m so excited!!! _

_ I can’t wait!! _

_ It’s going to be so muhc fun! _

_ *much _

_ Good morning by the way! _

_ Why am I messaging you you’re not awake? _

_ I’ll stop now _

_ See you later!!!! _

 

The block of messages was rounded off with a plethora of emojis, ranging from rainbows and sparkles and stars all the way up to a dog. Lena honestly had no idea what any of them meant, and it was too early for her to think about trying to find out, so she shot a message off to the blonde before pulling herself out of bed and stumbling into the shower.

 

_ I can’t wait either! _

_ Is Eliza still okay to pick me up? _

 

She didn’t wait for a response before bracing herself and diving under the torrent of water cascading from the showerhead, but she did have to stop herself from diving back out of it when she heard her phone ping from her room. After all, running across the room, dripping water everywhere and getting cold just because the girl she was most certainly falling hard for had messaged her back was silly, wasn’t it?

 

Two moments later and Lena’s doing exactly that.

 

_ Of course she is! _

_ See you at 9:45, right? _

 

_ Right! _

 

The shower is heavenly when she steps back in, and she hates the fact that she has to leave it’s warmth, but Lena still has to double-check she has everything she needs for the weekend so she reluctantly turns off the taps and sets about picking out what she’s going to wear.

 

That task turns out to be harder than she anticipated; on the one hand, she can’t show up to a casual sleepover in one of her usual business-looking outfits, but at the same time she’s not sure if she’s comfortable enough with everyone to loll about in baggy jeans and flannels.

 

In the end, she decides on her black skinny jeans, a lovely red tank top, and a blazer, because why on earth not? She dries her hair and straightens it, dithers over whether or not to pull it up into a ponytail or leave it down, and settles for half-up half-down before she unpacks and repacks her bag to make sure everything’s still there.

 

By the time she’s done all that, it’s 8:30, leaving Lena an hour before she needs to be out of the house and making her way to the bottom of the driveway. Idly, she repositions the bottles of alcohol in her bag so they won’t knock against each other and wanders over to her dressing table.

 

Maybe she should put some makeup on? Not as much as she’d bothered with when trying to cover up the mark on her cheek, which had thankfully vanished in it’s entirety by now, but definitely just a little something. The again, she’d probably have to take it off before she went to sleep, a monumental task when she was utterly hammered.

 

Fuck it, what the hell?

 

She grabs her makeup bag and sets to work, and maybe she ends up wearing a little more than usual, but she looks good and she feels good and she’s managed to kill some time so she decides to leave a little earlier than she’d planned and take the less direct route to the bottom of the drive save Lillian see her walking across the grounds with a bag full of stolen booze.

 

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

 

*****

 

Eliza seems surprised when she pulls up to the side of the road next to Lena, Kara in the backseat behind her.

 

“Oh,” she says, “how long have you been waiting here, sweetheart?”

 

“Only a few minutes,” the Luthor lies, sliding into the car next to Kara and ticking her bag in with her. “I was ready earlier than I thought so I decided to save you the trip up the driveway.”

 

In reality, Lena’s been outside for far longer than she’d have liked, but she happened to notice Lillian lurking by one of their large, front-facing windows as she stole out of the house, through one of the garden mazes, and down behind the flowerbeds so it was definitely worth it. She’d glanced behind her just as she’d left the border of the estate and had just been able to make out the figure of her mother, still staring out of the window as if she thought Lena was stupid enough to waltz out of the house in plain sight. The youngest Luthor wasn’t 100% certain that she’d escaped without detection, but she was fairly sure of it, and decided that she’d face her punishment for vanishing when she returned on the Sunday.

 

“It would have been no bother,” Eliza insisted. “And it would have been lovely to meet your mother.”

 

“She isn’t in today,” Lena informed her. “She and father have a business meeting abroad and will be gone the whole weekend, which is why she was so glad when I told her I have plans; she hates me being all on my own at home.” The lie was beautifully smooth, and Lena was oddly pleased with herself for coming up with it on the spot.

 

“Oh, well, if she’d be more comfortable with you staying with friends whenever she’s out of town, then our door is always open.” 

 

Eliza’s genuine smile and the feel of Kara’s hand in her own made Lena feel a tiny bit guilty for lying, but the fact that the Danvers were such nice people only made her more determined to keep them away form her mother. After all, if Lillian didn’t know who they were then Lena couldn’t be banned from seeing them!

 

“Thank you, Eliza,” the Luthor said in response to the offer. “I’ll be sure to pass that on to my mother.”

 

And then they were off, the Danvers matriarch pulling away from the kerb and performing a neat little u-turn that left them facing the direction from which they had come. Kara’s hand squeezed Lena’s gently and the two girls found themselves pressed close together again, the blonde’s love of the middle seat having not diminished since the last time they rode in the car together without Winn.

 

“Are you excited?” She asked Lena, eyes glittering in the early morning sun that was streaming in through the car window.

 

She damn near took the Luthor’s breath away, so it was all the dark-hair girl could do to whisper a rather breathy ‘yes’

 

Kara squeed a little bit and Lena’s heart nearly imploded.

 

“It’s going to be so much fun! You will  _ love  _ these movies!”

 

The blonde went on to chatter animatedly for the rest of the car ride, smile on her face and hands flying everywhere in elaborate gestures. She was so full of light and happiness that it was contagious, painting a smile on the Luthor’s lips and keeping it there. Lena was captivated by the other girl, by her laugh and the brightness in her eyes and the way the sun caught in her golden locks and how many times has she had these exact same thoughts now?

 

It was only a short trip to the Danvers’, so short that Lena could probably have walked it had she known the way, in fact, and she made a mental note to keep a better eye on her surroundings next time so she wouldn’t have to rely on Eliza for a lift if these sleepover weekends became a regular thing. How on earth she was going to be able to manage that when sharing a car with Kara, however, was a different matter entirely; so lost she was in the other girl that she hardly noticed the car had stopped.

 

The Danvers’ house, from the outside, didn’t look like much; it was the same as any other house on the street, with two stories, a small front garden and a well-kept fence. There was a garage with a blue door attached to the side of the building and sat at the top of a bricked driveway, which was separated from the road by a short black gate. It wasn’t a very big house, though it certainly wasn’t small, and Lena wondered just how they were all going to cope cooped up inside ot for a weekend. After all, nine people clustered around one television was sure to get cramped after a while.

 

But those thoughts were pushed from her mind as Eliza killed the engine and Kara hopped out of the car and rushed around to take Lena’s bag for her. She also took the Luthor’s hand and excitedly pulled her towards the front door, which was painted the same shade as that of the garage.

 

“You ready?” she asked, and Lena rolled her eyes.

 

“Kara, it’s your house, not the cave of wonders from Aladdin,” she grinned.

 

The blonde lightly batted at her arm.

 

“It’s just as special,” she insisted. “Now, watch out for Krypto.”

 

“What-?”

 

Lena had just enough time to brace herself before an excited bark was heard and a golden blurr jumped at the blonde in from of her. Kara handled the situation expertly, juggling both her dog and Lena’s bag, which she deposited at the foot of the stairs, and shuffling everyone through into the living room.

 

Krypto snuffled happily at his mistress’ face before seeming to suddenly realise that there was a new friend in the room. He left off his slobbery attack on Kara, let out a loud bark, and then launched himself at Lena, who’d never actually properly met a dog of his size before and so was quite unprepared for how much force he was capable of jumping at someone with. She soon found out, though, as she was knocked backwards into a wall and had to fight off Krypto, who was adamant about licking her face, with both hands.

 

Somewhere in the background, someone was yelling ‘Krypto, no!’ and ‘Krypto, down!’, but it was eventually Kara pulling to dog off her that actually freed the Luthor.

 

“Sorry,” Kara grinned, holding the dog firmly around his middle. “He just likes new people.”

 

Krypto barked as if in agreement, and poked his nose into the blonde’s hair.

 

“It’s quite alright.” Lena tried not to sound too shaken as she smoothed down her top. “I’m just not used to dogs, or any animals, really.”

 

“Well, we’ll try to make Krypto behave himself for the weekend,” Alex said, suddenly appearing at the Luthor’s elbow, apparently having come downstairs at the comotion. “Should only be  _ slightly  _ impossible.”

 

“Hey! Krypto can behave,” Kara pouted. “He’s a good boy, aren’t you Krypto? Yes you are! Yes you are!”

 

Alex rolled her eyes at her sister, who was now sat on the floor with a very happy golden retriever that appeared to be loving the attention if the speed at which his tail was wagging was any indication.

 

“Don’t worry about him,” the redhead assured Lena. “He’s alright once he’s calmed down. Now, let’s take your stuff upstairs.” She grabbed the Luthor’s bag but paused at the sound of glass bottles knocking together. 

 

Lena saw her look and answered the unspoken question.

 

“My mother may have had some red wine she wasn’t going to drink, and my father  _ may  _ have forgotten about the cupboard full of whiskey.”

 

Alex’s eyes sparkled.

 

“I knew there was a good reason for having you over, Luthor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyy so the weekend is finally here!!! I wonder what shenanigans the gang will get up to next chapter (she says, knowing full well what the gang will get up to next chapter)!
> 
> Uuuh, so yeah, hope you all like this one; I know it doesn't feature the gang as much, nor have too much focus on the KarLena, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and we can have all the good stuff next chapter. Speaking of that, I've already made a start on it, so you can expect it around this time next week, I promise you that. After that, though, it may be a bit more difficult to keep updates regular because I have a degree to get aaaaand the people in my life seem to think that's more important.
> 
> Anyway, yeah, I enjoyed writing this chapter, next one will be next week, I'd really appreciate it if you could point out any spelling or grammar mistakes because I know I never catch them all. Comments are welcome and feedback is definitely loved to pieces, and i don't normally do this but, if you guys have time, I'd love it if you could check out my latest story (apart from this) called 'Funny How Things Work Out'; it's hella long, I'm oddly proud of it, if you don't fancy doing it then don't, feel free to ignore me.
> 
> So! That's that! See you next week, I guess,
> 
> Three


End file.
